Cast Off
by Aggie Escott
Summary: A series of mother and child murders affects Hotch to the heart. Minor character death. Starting at Kplus. May upgrade it later
1. Welfare

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 1  
Welfare

_**It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Friedrich von Schiller**_

Aaron Hotchner stood at the door of the bedroom and surveyed the scene.

Dark wood simple furniture, a bowl of deep red roses on the tell boy, the centre piece of the room being the wooden four poster bed hung with cream voile. Opposite the door was a free standing mirror, and Hotch could see his reflection in the glass.

Actually the centre piece was no longer the bed, but that horror that was lying on it.

The woman was probably beautiful once, now there was little to see of her face. The UnSub was frenzied when he did this. He was devolving. Arcs of scarlet cast off covered the ceiling and the walls, and stained the voile around the bed. Shorter, thicker arcs of arterial blood decorated the mirror that Hotch's eyes seemed to freeze on.

The pattern matched the roses.

This was the third scene like this that Hotch had seen in the last two months, fifth if you counted photographs of the first two. And it was getting worse.

This time the body of the child was on the bed with her mother. In the last four attacks, the child hadn't been touched.

'Same entry method, Hotch.' Morgan said, coming out of a side room. 'Bathroom window has been cut out and opened from the inside. The Unsub must be fit to climb through without alerting his victim.'

'Sarah.' Hotch said. 'Her name was Sarah.'

Morgan nodded. 'The child was Janey.'

'How did she die?' Hotch asked, trying to tear his eyes from the mirror.

'Single stab wound to the neck.' Morgan answered. 'Death would have been almost instantaneous.' he added, knowing how this would be affecting his Boss.

'Why has he killed the child this time?' Hotch thought out loud.

'She died on the bed.' Reid said. 'Possibly she was in bed with her mother. The others were in separate rooms.'

'Check the child's room.'

_Jack sleeps with Haley......._

'We need to get together and work up a new profile.' Hotch said. 'I'll get JJ to call a press conference. I will release the profile to the media. We need help on this one.'

'I'll let her know.' Rossi said sadly passing Hotch into the rest of the tiny but immaculate apartment. He got out his cell and called JJ.

'Press conference at five thirty, in time for the six o'clock news.' he came back with. 'These attacks are getting closer together. The forth was only five days ago.

'Call the team, Dave. Let's get this profile together.'

-0-0-0-

'All the women were single parents whose children were born out of wedlock. All five were on welfare.' Reid said.

Emily said, 'The women were aged between eighteen and twenty three. All the children were three years old. They collected welfare from different offices, all came from different areas, attended different schools.

'We need to connect the victims. What do they have in common?'

'The age of the children, and the fact that they collected welfare. All white, blonde and attractive, with white children. All were raped after they were killed. DNA match hasn't been completed on the last two, but the other three don't match each other or anything on CODIS.'

'So this could be a woman, trying to make us think it's a man, or it could be several men.' Hotch said. 'Not so likely. Fingerprints?'

'None at the scenes.' Dave said. 'We have a size ten footprint at two of the scenes, but that could be a plant if the semen is.'

'A female serial killer is rare.' Emily said.

'That depends on the motive.' Reid said. 'Women are quite capable of killing if it is for revenge or out of jealousy.'

'So if this UnSub is a woman, revenge or jealousy is the possible motive.' said Hotch. 'Although how anyone could be jealous of a single woman struggling on welfare is beyond me.'

Hotch looked down at his notes. Woman, or possibly a man, white, aged between twenty five and thirty five. Possibly on welfare herself. She or he is devolving, so would be acting out of character, angry and confused. Not much to go on after five killings, but it might jog someone's memory. He called JJ to confirm the time of the press conference, and he left the crime scene to the rest of his team and Grissom's CSI team.

-0-0-0-

Hotch stood back as JJ called the room to quiet, and introduced herself and the basics of the cases they were talking about. Then she turned to Hotch, and he stepped forward and delivered the profile.

'The person we are looking for is probably a woman, of above average intelligence. She is white, single, probably on welfare, or at least low income. She may have lost a child recently. She is between twenty five and thirty five. She will be acting out of character, angry and confused. If this sounds familiar to you, please call the number at the bottom of your screen. thank you.'

Hotch stepped back and JJ fielded questions. Most of them JJ could answer herself, but for one she stepped aside and Hotch took it.

'Does the person you are looking for have to have all those points? How accurate is this picture?'

'The profile is based on precedent. We are confident that the UnSub will be most, if not all, the things that I have described.'

There was some frantic scribbling in note books, and some final photographs, and the group of journalists dispersed to their various stations with their news.

Hotch sighed heavily and walked with JJ back into the police building.

He needed to call Haley. Jack had had some photographs taken at nursery, and Hotch needed a new one for his desk. He smiled as he thought of his little boy. He had played the video clip of Jack on his bike over and over. Suddenly the image of the little family butchered on the bed overlaid the happy laughing child. The image was so powerful, so strong, that Hotch staggered as he walked with JJ. He leaned against the wall.

'Are you alright, Hotch?' she asked, reaching out a hand to steady him.

'Uh.... yes, I'm fine.' he said, feeling sick, and needing to sit down. 'Just a bit tired.'

Just inside the police station was a row of seats. He wanted to sit in one of them, but he couldn't show weakness in front of his team. He pulled himself together, and followed JJ to the elevator.

While he waited for the elevator, he pulled out his cell and called Haley. She was expecting him.

'Jack is off school tomorrow. If you call round at about ten thirty, I can give you the photo and you can spend a little time with Jack.' she said.

'Can we make it earlier, Haley please.' Hotch asked. 'You see I'm on a case and.......'

She didn't let him finish. 'You haven't learnt a thing, have you?' she shouted. Hotch turned away from JJ. 'Ten thirty or not at all.' and she cut the connection.

JJ had heard enough. Her heart went out to Hotch. He had struggled with the job and his marriage for years, but it was only after Jack was born that Haley demanded more and more of his time – time he was not able to give. She thought of her little Henry, and Will. She hadn't accepted his marriage proposal, and looking at the state Hotch was in, wondered whether it was worth the fight. Could she say that she was sure that the same thing wouldn't happen to her? True, Will was not an FBI Agent, but he was a cop, and cop to cop marriages were notoriously rocky.

She resisted the urge to put her arm around Hotch, and she followed him into the elevator.

-0-0-0-

Haley looked at the phone furiously. He still did it! He hadn't learnt a damn thing. Always his job came first!

She threw the hand set onto the couch crossly and went through to her small kitchen where Jack was sitting in his high chair eating fruit. Another child sat at the table eating. Kyle, her best friend's little boy. She was minding him for the night while his mum worked. Haley didn't need to work. Aaron was more than generous with her alimony. She hadn't connected in her mind that the alimony was from his work.......

'Daddy's coming to see you tomorrow.' she said to Jack, and his little face broke into a huge smile. Haley knew how much he loved his Daddy...... but his Daddy loved his job more, and that was unacceptable.

'Is he staying here?' Jack asked innocently.

'No Sweetie. He has to work.' answered Haley bitterly.

When she had left Aaron, she still loved him a little, but couldn't cope with sharing him with the job; It was such a demanding mistress. But she had hoped that the shock of her leaving would bring him to his senses, and he would leave his job and be hers one hundred percent. But it hadn't worked, and he poured even more of himself into work now than he ever did while they were together. Now her love for him had dwindled to nothing, and although she didn't wish him harm, she certainly wished he would leave her and Jack alone to grow into their new life.

But that wasn't going to happen. Aaron still loved her and Jack. She was stuck with him.

'Daddy's on television!' shouted jack, pulling her out of her reverie. She watched him talk about serial killers and death enough to last a life time, but to Jack, seeing his Daddy on TV was exciting still. 'Look, Kyle, That's my Daddy!'

And Haley realised at that moment that she would never be rid of Aaron.

-0-0-0-

Hotch sent his team to their hotel to bed. They couldn't work while they were exhausted. Hotch was sharing with Dave.

'I will be late in tomorrow.' he said. 'I have to go and see Haley about something. I will join you back here at about eleven thirty.'

'That's fine, Aaron.' Dave said. He knew that something had happened, or maybe it was the death of the child at the last crime scene, but Hotch was quieter than usual, and Dave understood his need to check on Jack. Even though he had no children (although he did wonder sometimes about Erin Strauss's middle boy.) he understood Aaron's need, and in his usual kind way, made allowances for him.

-0-0-0-

Hotch was up and out of the hotel early in the morning, before the others. He walked slowly to the police station to check that no new evidence had come in from Grissom during the night, and then he walked to the town. He wanted to buy Jack a gift to take with him. In his heart he just wanted to hold him, but he knew how annoyed Haley got when he bought a gift for Jack, and the temptation to buy something huge and extravagant crossed his mind. He allowed himself a little smile, but it didn't reach his dark eyes,

In the end he bought him a game for his PSP. Something easy for him with no text instructions. He would like that. He went to another shop and bought wrapping paper and tape and sat on a bench in the park and wrapped it. "To Jack from Daddy" was all he wrote. Jack couldn't read yet.

He wandered slowly back to the hotel. He had an hour to go before ten thirty, but he decided to drive over now. If he was thirty minutes early, Haley might just let him see Jack for a little longer.

It all depended on her mood.

He was surprised to see that the other two SUV's were gone out of the car park. The team were starting early.

He unlocked his door and slid into the driver's seat and threw the game over onto the back seat. It was a half hour drive to Haley's, and the anticipation of seeing his son began to build up, and he felt the now familiar butterflies as he drove out of the car park.

He switched on the radio and the news was on. He quickly turned it off. He didn't want this meeting to be sullied by bad news. Instead he put a CD into the machine and played Erasure, and after a few miles, he realised he was singing along with it.

He felt happy and relaxed as he turned into Haley's street, and then suddenly his heart was in his mouth.

The flashing lights and yellow crime scene tape greeted him, and the other two SUV's were parked hap hazardly along the edge of the pavement.

_Oh no! oh god, no!_

He pulled up as close as he could get, fumbling for his ID.

'FBI' he shouted 'This is my wife's house!'

He pushed past the cops on the door and ran through the silent empty rooms He ran upstairs to the bedroom

'Aaron Hotchner FBI!' he shouted at a cop who tried to stop him. He ran into the bedroom, and saw it.

He collapsed onto his knees, and felt Dave and Reid at his side.

'Don't come in here, Aaron.' Dave said.

Hotch looked at him with shocked eyes.

'Haley?'

'We don't know, Hotch. She's been too badly mutilated.'

Hotch struggled in their grasp.

'Let me go in there..... please..... oh god! Jack....'

Dave and Reid kept hold of him.

'There is a child, Hotch. I am so sorry.' Reid said.

Hotch started to cry


	2. Crime Scene

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 2  
Crime Scene

"_**Sooner or later everybody dies. There's nothing you can do about that." Mark Harmon (Dr. McNeil - Chicago Hope)**_

Hotch tried to pull away from Dave and Spencer, but they weren't going to let Hotch back in the room. Hotch was on his knees, begging them to let him go, tears of fear and grief flowing down his pale cheeks.

'Haley....oh god, Jack!' he cried. Dave knelt in front of him and took him in his arms.

'Aaron, we don't know yet if it is them.' he said. 'Let me go and find out. Stay here with Reid.'

'Please, let me go.' Hotch whispered. Dave shook his head gently.

'I can't, Aaron.' He looked at Reid and nodded to him. Reid moved in front of Hotch and took his arms.

'Come and sit down, Hotch, and we can wait for news.'

With Reid's help, Hotch staggered to his feet, and Reid helped him to the spare bedroom where he sat on the bed. Reid sat beside him and put his arm around his shoulder.

'Why? Why? Haley doesn't fit the profile! Why Haley? Why my Jack?....... Oh god.....'

Hotch leaned forwards and rested his face in his hands. Dave came into the room. He held something out to Hotch. It was a ring and a bracelet.

'Aaron,' he said gently. 'Are these Haley's?'

Hotch moved his hands from in front of his face and looked at them.

'Yes.' he whispered. 'I bought her the bracelet.' He looked into Dave's eyes. 'Were they on the body?'

Dave nodded. 'I'm so sorry Aaron. We need you to look at the child. We are fairly certain that the woman is Haley, but we can't identify the boy.'

Hotch could hear the sounds of the photographer's camera in the adjoining room. There was no other sound. The house was silent.

'I want to see him. I want to see my Jacky.' he said, standing up. He went to the door as the first body bag was carried out. Hotch stepped forwards.

'You don't need to see her, Aaron. She can be identified by dental records.' Dave said.

'I need to....'

'No, Aaron.' He felt Dave's hand on his arm and he stopped pushing forwards. 'Just hold on.'

Hotch watched in distress as the bag was carried downstairs. The second bag was carried out in the tender arms of a policeman. When he saw Hotch he laid the little body on the floor and unzipped the bag, revealing a little face, white through exsanguination, a halo of blonde hair around his face. Blood on his neck was across the child's chin and throat.

'It's not Jack.' Hotch said, shock making him dizzy. 'Oh god it's not my baby....... where is Jack?' He staggered back against the wall and slid down to the floor. 'Where's my Jacky?'

'Rossi, I've found something!' Morgan called from the bedroom. He emerged with an envelope. Written on it in small neat writing was "Agent Aaron Hotchner". He showed it to his Boss, handing him some gloves. Hotch put the gloves on shaking hands and took the envelope. He carefully opened the envelope and unfolded the letter that was inside.

"_Agent Aaron Hotchner now you know your profile needs some work. I saw you on TV cocky and confident. How do you feel now, Agent Aaron Hotchner? Talk again soon."_

Hotch's fingers tightened on the paper, and it was carefully removed from his hand and slipped into an evidence bag along with the envelope.

Hotch looked up at his friend. 'Have they taken Jack, Dave?' he said, tears welling up in his eyes again

'Let me take you home, Aaron.' Dave said. 'You can't do anything here.'

'I'm not going home, Dave, not all the time Jack is missing.' Hotch said, standing up, fighting for control.

'You can't work this case.' Dave said. 'You are way too close to this.'

'That letter was addressed to me. This is personal.' he said. 'I need to do this.'

Dave clasped Hotch's arm and said, 'Are you sure that you can do this?'

Before he could answer, there was shouting from downstairs. Hotch and Dave went to the top of the stairs. A woman in the hall was shouting at the cop who wasn't letting her through.

'I want to see who is in charge!' she said. Hotch called Emily.

'Prentiss, I think the woman downstairs could be the mother of the dead child. Could you talk to her? I don't think......'

'Of course, Hotch.' Emily said. She went down the stairs to her, removing her gloves as she went. She reached out to shake her hand.

'Agent Emily Prentiss.' She led her into Haley's sitting room. 'Can I help you?'

'Haley was looking after Kyle last night.' she said. 'She was supposed to bring him home two hours ago...... What the hell is going on?' She resisted Emily's urgings to sit down. 'Where's my son?'

'Please sit down, Mrs?....'

'Warner.'

Mrs Warner, I am so sorry, but I have bad news. There was a murder here last night. Haley was killed, and a child's body was found next to her.' She watched the awful truth dawn on her, as her life changed forever. 'Mrs Warner, the child wasn't Jack.'

She clasped her hand to her mouth. 'Oh god no! Not Kyle!'

-0-0-0-

Hotch was walking. He didn't know where he was going, or how long it had been. He felt the morning breeze dry the tears on his face and his skin felt stiff and uncomfortable.

Why had the UnSub killed Haley? And where was Jack. There was no mention of him in the note. Presumably the note had been written before the UnSub went to the house and found two children there. Did they kill Kyle first before they found Jack? Was Jack still alive?

He had to believe he was alive or he would die inside. If they were going to kill Jack, surely they would have killed him at the scene.

He sat on a wall and rested his elbows on his knees, his head between his hands. Conflicting emotions rushed through him as he tried to look at the case professionally, whereas he wanted to lie on a bed and scrunch the pillow to his face and cry and scream and mourn the loss of a love that he had hopes of someday reviving. A profound feeling of guilt overwhelmed him. His own words to Haley echoed through his brain.

"_Keeping these people off the streets is keeping the world safe for you and Jack. That is why I cannot stop the work I am doing."_

And now, just because he had refused to give up the job, Haley was dead, and his precious son was missing.

And it was his fault.

He wasn't going to be pushed out of this investigation. He was going to find his son, and he owed it to Haley to catch this psychopath.

He rubbed at his stinging eyes and started to walk back to the house.

-0-0-0-

Emily put her arm around Kyle's Mum.

'That's Kyle..... that's my baby.' she sobbed, her hands on the glass between her and her boy.

'I'm so sorry, Mrs. Warner.'

She turned to Emily. 'It's not fair. my little boy wasn't part of the family. It should have been Haley's child that died, not mine!' She clung onto Emily, her grief tearing her apart. 'I am sorry. That was an awful thing to say. Is Jack alright?'

'It's ok, it's grief talking.' Emily said gently. 'Jack is missing. We will do everything in our power to find whoever did this to your boy.'

Kyle's Mother looked at Emily through a mist of tears. 'Thank you.'

-0-0-0-

Hotch was sitting on the bed in Haley's bedroom. The bed had been stripped and the covers taken for analysis, but the blood cast off was still on the ceiling. He tried to remove himself emotionally from the fact that the blood was from his ex wife, and look at it from a professional view point.

The killer hadn't moved on from the last killing of Sarah and Janey. This was in response to the press release. He quickly took out his phone and called JJ.

'I want you to take some leave and take Henry away somewhere.' he said.

'But I can't leave in the middle of an investigation, Hotch.' she said.

'You and your baby could be in danger, JJ. I want you off this case and away somewhere.'

'I'll call Will and tell him.'

'You do that, JJ. Please, get away as soon as you can.' Hotch said, and hung up.

He looked around the room again, and Reid came in and sat beside him.

'I am so sorry, Hotch.' He tentatively touched Hotch's hand. 'We will get this SOB, I promise I won't rest until we have them.'

Hotch turned his hand, and Reid curled his fingers around Hotch's.

For a brief second, Hotch didn't move. Then he stood up and faced him.

'What did that note say, Spencer?'

Reid repeated the words of the note to Hotch. '_Talk again soon.'_

'When?' Hotch said. 'If the UnSub is going to contact me, when is he going to do it?'

'I think he or she has Jack, Hotch.'

'So do I. But until he contacts me again, I won't know for sure.' Hotch said. 'Let's call the team together and update the profile.'

'They are downstairs waiting for us, except Emily. She's with Mrs. Warner at the police station.'

Hotch left the room and the blood behind and Reid followed him downstairs into Haley's living room.'

'How did the UnSub get in, Morgan?'

'Same as before, Hotch. Through the bathroom window.'

'But this time the UnSub has deviated from the profile. Haley wasn't on welfare.' Dave said. 'This was directed at Hotch in response to the TV appearance.'

Hotch put his hand to his forehead. Horrible images flashed before his eyes. Rossi came along side him.

'Do you need a break, Aaron?'

Hotch sighed. 'I don't think I can do this now, Dave.'

'Why don't you take the rest of the day off then, and we'll see what we can get together. In the morning we'll regroup and see what we've come up with.'

Hotch nodded. 'I think I'll do that.' he said. 'We will meet again in the morning at eight o'clock at the station.'

He turned to leave Haley's house. Rossi nodded to Reid to go with him. He stood up and followed Hotch out into the garden.

'I still can't believe this. Where's my son? I need to find him, but I can't think straight, let alone work up a profile.'

'That's to be expected, Hotch.'

He walked beside him. It was late afternoon now, and the sun was going down. There was chill in the air, and Hotch pulled his jacket tighter around him. They walked in silence through the quiet streets. Reid tentatively brushed his hand against the back of Hotch's. Again Hotch turned his hand and their fingers curled together.

'We're going to get him, Hotch. And we'll find Jack.'

Hotch could feel the tears pricking behind his eyes again and he fought for control. But out of the environment of the house with its crime scene tape and flashing lights, all control was gone. He felt the tears escape and run down his face.

'I loved her, Spencer. Even after everything that happened, I still loved her.'

Reid squeezed his hand. 'I know.'

'And now she's dead and it's my fault.'

Reid took a step in front of him and turned to face him. He took his other hand in his and looked up into his tear filled grief stricken eyes.

'Never say that, Hotch. It's the UnSub's fault. He did this, not you.'

Very slowly, Reid put his arms around Hotch. Hotch leaned on him and held him, and let the tears come.

-0-0-0-

'Time to talk again!'

The woman stood six feet away from the two men. The gun she was carrying was pointed at Reid.

'Step away from each other.'

Hotch and Reid stepped back from each other; Hotch wiped at his wet face with the back of his hand. The gun discharged and Reid fell onto his knees. Hotch took a step back towards him.

'Get away from him!' she hissed.

Reid looked up.

'Hotch.....' and his eyes closed and he fell forwards onto his face.

'Let me help him!' Hotch said, reaching out to him. 'Please!'

'You are coming with me.' and the gun discharged again.


	3. Jack

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 3  
Jack

_**It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn, **__**Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man**__**, 1994 **_

Emily stood in the doorway of Jack's bedroom. She had a puzzled frown on her face. Something wasn't right.

The bed wasn't messed up as if a child had been pulled out of it in the night. And there were no toys in the bed. She walked around the room, imagining herself about to steal the child......

Something was definitely wrong.

She called Morgan.

'Does this look right to you?' she asked.

Morgan stood in the middle of the room, and turned around slowly.

'No.' he said. 'It doesn't.' he said. He went to the bed and touched the quilt. 'Where're the toys?'

'That's what I thought.' Emily said.

Morgan went to the wardrobe and picked up a teddy bear. It was the only thing out of place.

'He's still here.'

Morgan opened the wardrobe. Neatly ironed little shirts and trousers were hanging in a row at the top. Morgan knelt down and lifted the floor of the wardrobe, and beneath the floor was a child, curled up asleep with a pale blue blanket and a doll.

'Call Hotch.' he said, gently touching the child's neck. 'Cancel the Amber Alert.'

Emily reached for her cell.

-0-0-0-

Hotch fell back against the wall as the bullet tore its way through the ball joint of his right shoulder. He tried to reach for his gun on his belt but his right arm wouldn't move. A heavy mist descended over his vision.

'Let me check on Reid.' he said.

The woman's hand snaked around his waist and removed his gun. He clutched at his shoulder, thick blood welled between his fingers.

'Move.' She waved her gun at him.

Hotch's cell phone rang in his pocket. The woman took the phone from him and smashed it underfoot.

Hotch walked in front of her, clutching at his arm. He felt sick, and thought he was going to pass out. As they rounded a corner, a van was parked, rear doors open.

'Get in.'

'Please don't leave Reid in the road.' he said.

His answer was a pistol whipping. He fell forward into the back of the van. He curled onto his side. She cuffed him to the side of the van while he was too dazed to resist. He groaned and tried to stand. She pushed him back down and kicked him.

'Not so cocky now, are you?'

He opened his eyes and looked up at her.

'What have you done with my son?'

She kicked him in the mouth and slammed the door.

-0-0-0-

Reid got his cell out with a shaking hand. He tried to call 911 with bloody slippery fingers. The phone dropped from his trembling fingers before he could finish the call. He reached out and speed dialled Morgan.

'Help...... me....'

He passed out on the pavement.

-0-0-0-

'Reid! Reid!' Morgan shouted into his cell phone. 'What's going on? Where's Hotch?'

But there was no answer.

'I can't get Hotch.' Emily said. 'His phone has gone dead.'

Morgan was calling Garcia.

'Baby Girl, can you find Reid for me? His phone is active but I can't hear him'

He heard the tapping of Garcia's fingers on the keyboard. 'Sending the co-ordinates now – but he's not far from you.'

'Thank you Angel.' He closed the connection. Turning to Emily, 'Let's find him.'

The two agents left the house and followed the roar around to the left. They could see Reid up ahead, lying half on the pavement, half on the road. They ran up to him.

There was a pool of dark sticky blood around his shoulders. Morgan checked his pulse while Emily called the ambulance. Reid groaned under Morgan's touch.

'Reid, Kid, who did this? Where's Hotch?'

'The UnSub...... shot me, took Hotch.....' he said softly in reply.

Morgan rolled up his jacket and supported Reid's head.

'It's ok, Reid. Just concentrate on breathing for me.' Morgan said. 'Stay with me now.....'

Emily was looking for any clues as to where Hotch was. She found his smashed cell phone in the gutter.

'I know why I couldn't reach him on his cell.' she said to Morgan. The sound of the ambulance siren was getting closer. 'It's been smashed.'

Morgan was pressing down on Reid's wound. Blood was running out between his fingers.

Emily found blood on the wall, and a bullet hole in the brickwork.

'Hotch has been shot as well.' she said. She followed the trail of blood droplets around the corner to where they suddenly stopped. She ran back to Morgan.

'It looks as if he was taken somewhere in a vehicle that opens at the back – possibly a van. The blood trail stops just around the corner.'

The ambulance pulled up next to the fallen agent. Morgan stepped back and allowed the medics in to do their work. The gunshot wound was just under his right collarbone, the bullet was lodged somewhere in his shoulder. Carefully they lifted Reid onto a stretcher, and slid it into the back of the ambulance.

'You go with him, Emily.' Morgan said, 'and I'll get Rossi and tell him what has happened. This is escalating out of control.'

Emily climbed into the back of the ambulance. 'I will call you.' she said to Morgan as the doors closed.

Morgan called the CSU to process the scene. Then he followed the blood trail as Emily had. He looked around for any security cameras, but there weren't any. It was a residential area. Morgan went and knocked on the closest door.

There had been two gun shots, but of course, no body had heard anything. A house at the end of the street had a security camera trained on the road. Morgan went there next.

'We have had problems with vandalism on my son's car, and his is parked in the street.' the woman explained. 'That is only there for show.'

Morgan called Rossi as he made his way back down the path to the road. The CSU's had set up the crime scene tape, and plastic numbers next to the droplets of Hotch's blood. He stood and watched them photograph the scene as he waited for Rossi.

-0-0-0-

Rossi was with Haley's sister, who had offered to take care of Jack.

'I can't believe she's gone.' she said. Her eyes were swollen and red with crying.

'I am so sorry for your loss, Miss Brooks.' he said with deep sincerity. 'This must be a very difficult time for you.'

She nodded sadly. 'Jack is all I have left of her now. I'll take good care of him.'

She closed the door on Rossi. He had the feeling that she blamed Haley's murder on Aaron. As he left the door, his phone rang.

'Rossi, Reid has been shot, and we think Hotch has too.' said Morgan. 'Reid is on his way to hospital, but Hotch has been taken by the UnSub'

'Did you tell him that we've found Jack?' Dave asked.

'No it was too late. He's been abducted still thinking that his son is missing.'

'That isn't going to help him to deal with his situation.' Dave said. 'Call Emily and we'll meet up at the station in an hour.'

'Ok.' Morgan put the phone down and called Emily at the hospital. She was in the relative's room, waiting for news of Reid who was in the OR having the bullet removed from his shoulder. She had been told that although there was a lot of blood, and Reid was in shock, the damage was not as bad as it looked, and he would likely only be in for two or three days. Emily was relieved. The team was down to three field agents, and the killer was devolving, and could fall into a psychotic break.

They had to find Hotch before that happened.

-0-0-0-

Hotch tried to lie still in the back of the van. It was cold as night fell, and every time the van cornered, the cuff on his wrist dug in and drew blood. His right shoulder was agony, his right arm useless, and his head hurt where he had been pistol whipped. The floor of the van was slippery with a coating of his blood

He tried to sit, but the van turned a corner, and he slid to his side. He lay still on his side and waited. Sooner or later the van would stop. He concentrated on listening for clues as to where he was going, but all he could think about was the blood in Haley's bedroom. The image that Rossi and Reid were not able to prevent him from seeing.

The horror of his Haley lying on the bed........

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to dismiss the burning image, but all he could see was bloody cast off and arterial spray.

_Oh Haley, I am so sorry..... I will find Jack for you....._

The van came to a halt, and he slipped sideways on the floor.

When the back door of the van opened, it was dark outside, they were far from the town, and there were no street lights. Hotch slowly sat up and blinked in the darkness. He felt sick and dizzy, and wondered what this woman had done to Jack.

'Where is my son?' he said softly. The van moved as the woman stepped up into the back.

'Your son is dead.' she said brutally. 'I killed him.'

Hotch felt light headed. 'Why? Why have you done this?' he asked.

'I am doing this to you, Agent Aaron Hotchner. You stood up in front of the press and thought that you knew everything about me.' she said. 'But you know nothing.' She moved in the darkness to the back of the van and shone her flashlight into his eyes. He flinched back. She raised the gun over her head and hit him again. He didn't bother to resist, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

-0-0-0-

Dave. Morgan and Emily sat in the small room that had been given to them by the police to work in. The Amber alert had been cancelled, but now Hotch was missing, and possibly injured. Reid said he heard another shot, and there was the blood trail. But it hadn't been identified as Hotch's blood.

Not yet anyway.

'So what have we got?'

'It's definitely a woman.' Emily said. 'Reid saw her,'

'She has completely changed her MO.' Morgan said. 'She has moved from Murder to kidnapping.'

'That's moving the wrong way.' Dave said. 'Unless.......'

'Unless she plans to kill Hotch.' Dave said. 'We have to find him. And soon.'

'I'll get a sketch artist down to Reid as soon as he's awake for a picture of our UnSub.' Morgan said. He got his phone out and moved to the side of the room.

'Remember what the message said to him. It called him cocky and over confident.' Emily said. 'Is this her way of punishing him?'

'He still thinks that Jack is missing.' said Morgan. 'That would have been punishment enough.'

'The child she killed – Kyle Warner – did she think it was Jack?'

'Probably. Jack had been taught to run or hide if he was afraid of anything. Hotch taught him well. It saved his life today.'

'So what else do we have? Do we have a geographic profile?'

'Reid was working on one.' Morgan said. 'Without Haley, the murdered women all lived in a fifteen mile area, the killer likely in the centre about here.' He pointed to a red circle on the map within a larger blue circle that surrounded all five of the murder scenes. 'He thought maybe this UnSub prowls for her victims riding on public transport, sizing them up as she travelled.'

'That is a good theory. Reid didn't have time to expand it though.' Dave said. 'Could you and Emily work on that?'

The two agents nodded and bent over the map. Emily called the local public transport company for time tables and route information.

Rossi called the hospital for news on Reid.

They needed him back on the case asap if they were going to find Hotch before it was too late.


	4. Changes

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 4  
Changes

"_**The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a **__**captive**__** of the environment in which you first find yourself.**__**" **_ ___**Mark Caine **___

When Hotch woke up he was alone in a cold dark room. He opened his eyes. There was a faint glow, and after a few moments he saw that the light was coming from under the door. He was lying on a metal frame bed with a thin damp mattress. He went to get up, and realised that he was cuffed to the bed by the ankle – the same ankle that used to hold his second gun. He sat up slowly. His right arm throbbed with pain, and his face hurt where he had been kicked. He touched the back of his head and winced at the sticky blood in his hair.

"_Your son is dead. I killed him."_

'I want to see my son!' he shouted into the darkness. 'Please, let me see him!'

The door slowly opened and a wedge of light cut into the room. Hotch screwed his eyes up against the sudden brightness. The woman's silhouette stood in the doorway.

'Please, let me see my son.' Hotch begged.

She raised her hand and Hotch saw that she was holding a gun. She pointed it at him. Hotch closed his eyes.

-0-0-0-

Emily handed out the picture of the UnSub that Reid had come up with. It was probably a good likeness, knowing Reid.

Morgan spread a pile of bus timetables out onto the table. Some of the routes were high lighted.

'These routes go past the homes of our victims.' Morgan said. I would like to take the pictures of them, and the UnSub, and show them to the bus drivers and passengers.'

'Good idea, Morgan.' Rossi said. Before he could get any further, Reid walked into the room and sat down at the table with a sigh. The three looked at him in surprise.

'What are you doing out so soon?' Rossi said. 'I thought they said two or three days.'

Reid put a small bottle on the table. 'I needed to bring you this. You need to run it.'

Morgan picked up the bottle. It contained the bullet that had been removed from Reid's shoulder.

'I'll get it down to ballistics right away.' he said.

Reid rested his head in his hand, his elbow on the table. 'And I need to work on the geo profile too.'

Rossi un pinned the map from the wall and spread it out on the table in front of Reid.

'I'm not saying you should have left the hospital, Reid, but I'm glad you are here.'

Reid reached for the coloured pens and the evidence folder.

The latest murder, that of Haley Hotchner, he would leave out. Her murder didn't fit the pattern. But the others seemed to form a circle around a central zone in which he was convinced the UnSub lived. He picked up one of the time tables.

'Do you think this is how the UnSub found his victims?' he asked. Morgan nodded.

'I am going to show the picture around to check out the theory.'

'I'll come with you.' Reid said. He swayed slightly as he stood.

'I need you here.' Rossi said. 'Emily, please go with Morgan.'

Emily picked up the UnSub sketch and the pile of victim photographs, and followed Morgan out of the door.

Reid sat down again, secretly relieved that he wasn't going to be going out. He picked up the pens.

-0-0-0-

She stepped into the room.

'You are not here to make demands.' she said.

'Then why am I here?' Hotch asked. 'Why did you kill Haley? She had done nothing to you?'

'I wanted to hurt you. And without her or the child, you have nothing. Are you hurting?'

Hotch didn't speak. He felt the tears pricking the back of his eyes, but he refused to let her see how this was affecting him.

She waved her gun. 'Stand up.' she demanded.

Hotch put his feet on the ground and tried to stand. On the third attempt to do so, he managed it, but he held onto the bed stead to steady himself. His shoulder was still bleeding, and he noticed that the dampness of the thin mattress was caused by his own blood.

'Eventually I will kill you.' she said. 'Because that is what I do. But for now, you are here as my plaything, for me to do as I wish.'

'Please, I need to see Jack. Why won't you let me see him?'

She stepped back out of the door without answering him, and he heard the key in the lock.

The room was in darkness again. There was a slightly lighter patch where the thin moonlight touched the window, and now he was alone again, he began to take in the room around him.

Apart from the bed there was a bucket in the corner. There was no water or food available, and there was no light in the ceiling or curtains at the window. He saw rings in the wall at head level, and his heart was in his mouth as he wondered what these might be for. The chain around his ankle was a few feet long, just long enough for him to get to the bucket, but not long enough to reach to door. He sat on the bed and lifted his ankle onto his knee, and tested the strength of the cuff. There was no chance of his escaping from it. It was tight around his skin, and already his skin was sore. His shoes and socks were gone, presumably to make escape even more difficult.

But he really didn't care. His family had been wiped out and it was his fault.

He thought back to the time that Rossi had made him face up to the fact that the killings were not his fault, and were the fault of the UnSub. That time in the alley, he had let go, and Dave had seen him cry.

This time Dave wasn't there, and even if he was, there was no way he would be able to talk him out of this one. This was his family. The two people he loved most in the world, and this woman had killed them.

He had no idea how he was going to live with this.

He hoped she would kill him soon.

-0-0-0-

Morgan and Emily stood at the bus stop outside Sarah's building. Morgan was holding a photograph of the victim and her child Janey which had been taken from her living room. Emily had the sketch. They waited a few minutes until the bus arrived. It was nine thirty in the morning. This was the bus Sarah would have taken to get her child to day care.

'Yes, she was a regular on this bus.' the driver said. 'Her and her little girl. I've not seen her for a day or two though. Is she alright?'

'Did this woman catch this bus?' Emily asked, showing the driver the sketch. The driver took the picture from her and looked at it closely.

'I can't say. She wasn't a regular.' he said.

'I would like to address your passengers.' Morgan said. He stood at the front of the bus and held up the sketch.

'We are looking for this woman, and think she might have used this bus.' Emily walked up the aisle showing the picture up close. 'Do any of you know her or remember seeing her?'

The passengers were silent. If anyone knew who she was, they weren't saying. Emily handed her card to each passenger.

'If anyone remembers seeing this woman, please come forward.'

The two agents got off the bus and walked back to the car. They had four other buses to catch that day. Morgan drove to the building of the forth victim, while Emily checked the time table.

'If we are quick we might just get the bus that victim four might have caught to go to work.'

'Wasn't she on welfare?' Morgan said.

'She was, but she had a part time job too.'

Morgan parked again, and they quickly got out and went to the bus stop.

-0-0-0-

'I need to see Agent.....' she consulted the card in her hand. 'Emily Prentiss.'

'Agent Prentiss isn't here at the moment.' Rossi said. 'I am working on the same case. May I help you?'

'I think I've seen her, the woman in the sketch', she said, 'but I can't be one hundred percent sure.'

Rossi led her through to an interview room and sat down with her.

'Was this the woman you saw?' Dave showed her the sketch.

'I think so.'

'When did you see her?' Rossi asked, turning in his seat to give the woman his full attention.

'I've only seen her once, but I remember her because she was sweet to the little girl. She fell over, and this lady picked her up.'

Rossi showed her a picture of Sarah and Janey. 'Was this the child?'

'Yes I'm sure it was. She fell over, and the lady helped her up. I think she gave her some sweets. Is she ok? She was a very nice person.'

'We just need to ask her some questions, that's all.' Rossi said. 'Would you be able to sign a statement, please ma'am.' he added, 'telling us what you saw, and when it happened?'

The woman, Mrs Hanson, nodded. Dave got some witness statement paper out of the drawer, and began to write down the statement. She remembered where the woman had got on the bus, and remembered that she got off with Sarah and Janey. When she had finished, Rossi thanked her and took the information to Reid for his profile, and arranged for Mrs Hanson to be driven home.

-0-0-0-

Reid looked with frustration at the map. All it showed was a circle of dots where the victims lived. There didn't seem to be any way of narrowing down the area where the UnSub lived. He shuffled through the pile of time tables. He took the ones out with high lighted routes, and one by one marked them on the map in yellow. As he did so, to his delight, a pattern emerged. He checked the routes again, making sure, and called Rossi over to look at what he had found.

Rossi was just coming back in the room with Mrs Hanson's statement, as Reid called him over.

'I have found something, Rossi.'

-0-0-0-

Aaron stared at the ceiling. It was difficult not to think of his family. Ok, Haley had left him. But to him, she was still his wife, the mother of his little boy........

.....his dead little boy.

He turned onto his front and put his arm around the mattress and hugged it to himself. It smelt musty, but he didn't care. It was wet with his blood, but he didn't care about that either. He thought about Haley and Jack.

Then he thought about Sarah and Janey. And Natasha. And Fiona. And Lydia. And Donna. All the six victims whose blood called out to him for revenge.

His life was over. But he wasn't destroyed yet. He had work to do first.

And the first thing he had to do was talk down this woman whom he had allowed far too easily to abduct him and hold him prisoner.

He turned onto his side and painfully sat up. He had no feeling in his arm, and he could no longer feel the blood on his sleeve. But his shoulder was agony. He had a headache, and his body hurt where he had been kicked. He crawled across the concrete floor to the bucket and threw up into it. The nausea hit him wave after wave as he struggled for control. When at last his body had finished tormenting him, he sat back on his heels and tired to get his breath back. The tears were flowing now, but they were tears of frustration this time, not those of the debilitating self pity that had consumed him up to now.

He was not going to give up. He had work to do.


	5. Cell

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 5  
Cell

"_**Facing death is not so hard. Life is much harder to face." Morgan O'Donnell**_

Hotch slept for a short while on the bed. When he woke up, light was streaming through the window. His shoulder had stiffened with dried blood, and he found it difficult to move without feeling sick. Carefully and slowly he swung his legs off the bed and attempted to sit up, but that was too much. He lay back down and tried to get his breath back, and some measure of control. His mouth was dry and he realised that the nausea and headache was probably due to dehydration. He groaned and turned onto his side. There was no water for him, and he was going to have to ask for some.

'Please', he called out. 'I need some water.'

Without a drink, he would soon be too weak to stand a chance of escape. The wound in his shoulder was agonising, and he thought that he would lose his arm if he didn't get help soon. He heard the sound of the bolts being drawn back, and slowly the door swung inwards.

This time, Hotch could get a good look at his captor. The very fact that she was allowing him to see her face spoke volumes to Hotch.

She had no intention of letting him go. She was going to kill him.

She stooped down and placed a small bottle of water on the floor. Without saying a word she left the room and locked the door.

Hotch stared at the water. Now he had some, he wasn't sure if he ought to drink it. He needed it though, and even if it was drugged, it was better than nothing.

He couldn't stand. He rolled off the bed and crawled towards the bottle that seemed to be mocking him. He lay on the floor and reached out for the bottle. He could just touch it with his finger tips. He stretched just a little more, groaning with pain at the tension on his injured shoulder. He clasped the bottle, and drew it towards him.

He tentatively put the bottle to his lips. It tasted ok, although it could have any amount of drugs in it. He tilted the bottle and drank some of the contents. The liquid felt good on his tongue.

He shuffled back to the bed again, and he was half way across the floor when the pain struck........

-0-0-0-

The map was spread out on the table, and the team were sitting round waiting for Reid to tell them what they were looking at.

Several people on the buses had recognised the sketch, and those routes had been marked in a different colour on the map. A definite pattern had emerged, with the UnSub getting on the bus that the victim was already on. In two cases, she sat beside the woman she was planning to kill, befriending her. The area in which she lived had shrunk on the map, corresponding to the places where she got on the buses. Reid explained what he had found.

'....so the UnSub in all likelihood lives in this area here.' he finished.

'How likely is it that she is keeping Hotch at her home address?' Emily asked.

'Most of the properties in that area are close together, and quite old.' Dave said. 'It would be impossible to hold him there without the neighbours hearing anything.'

Morgan was opening his phone. 'I will ask Garcia to find all the single women on welfare in that area. And high light any who have lost a child in the last year. That should narrow down the field.'

Emily was going through the witness statements from the bus passengers.

'I think the UnSub may have been stalking these women too.' she said. 'The UnSub didn't always interact with the victims on the bus. It was almost as if she was relishing the power that stalking her victims gave her.'

'Let us go back to the neighbours, Emily, and Morgan. See if they saw anything suspicious in the weeks leading up to the killings.' Dave said. 'Reid, are you ok to come with me to interview neighbours?'

Reid stood up, making a determined effort not to look weak. He almost succeeded. Dave told him to sit down again.

'You stay here Reid. We three will go and talk to the neighbours

-0-0-0-

Hotch lay on his side in the prison cell. He clasped his hand across his abdomen and retched. What ever was in the water was hurting him beyond belief. He dragged himself to the bucket and leaned over it. Heaving and retching he threw up the bucket, and lay back down panting with exhaustion. Staring up at the window, the square of light wavered and flickered before his eyes and Hotch fainted.

-0-0-0-

The three agents had no joy with talking to the neighbours. No one saw anything, and were far too involved with their own miserable existences than watching out for other people.

'We have enough of our own problems.' one woman said who looked like she was on something, and whose husband was in prison. 'I barely have enough energy to get out of bed in the morning, let alone keeping an eye out for neighbours.' and she slammed the door in Rossi's face.

Morgan's phone rang.

'I have the list you asked for.' she said, forgoing the banter. 'There are eleven single women on welfare in the area specified.' she said. 'Two have lost a child in the last year. Sending the list over now.'

'Thank you, Doll.' He closed his phone. Turning to Dave and Emily, he said, 'We have two possible addresses for the UnSub to check out.'

They headed back to the car.

-0-0-0-

The pain in Hotch's shoulder was what woke him up again. He was standing now, facing the wall, and his wrists were attached to two of the rings embedded in the wall. His injured shoulder was twisted, and he tried to get more comfortable, a small cry of pain escaped his lips.

The woman stood by his side. He turned his head and looked onto her eyes.

'Why did you kill those women?' he asked.

'They had what should have been mine.' she said. 'Collecting welfare and working too. I couldn't get welfare, and my child died. Why should they have everything and I get left with nothing?'

Hotch shifted position and winced as the pain from his shot shoulder ran in knife edged waves across his body. His stomach hurt, and he wanted to curl up to relieve the pain. Instead he said, 'But they didn't deserve to die. And the children that you killed – they were innocent! Why kill them?'

'I killed your son, Hotchner, because I wanted to hurt you. Did you enjoy finding his body? Was it painful?

Hotch suddenly realised that she thought that the dead child was Jack. So she didn't have his child...... Jack could still be alive. He couldn't let her know the truth.

'Why do you want to hurt me?' he asked.

She showed him a knife that she had in her hand. He pulled away from it as she touched the flat of the blade on his cheek. He closed his eyes and waited for her to cut him. Without speaking, she took the knife and cut the shirt that he was wearing from the hem and up to the collar at the back. She pushed the fabric out of the way, and dropped the knife on the floor.

She left the room briefly and returned in seconds. She held up a rope whip that she had brought in with her, and hit him across is bare back with it. Hotch arched his back away from it, trying to control the cries.

Again she hit him. He felt the blood run down his back. His smashed shoulder screamed in pain. He couldn't help crying out in agony.

The knots in the rope tore into flesh and deep parallel gashes appeared in his pale skin. He was losing far too much blood. His death was not far off now.

He hoped that the rest of the team would find her. He was worried about Reid. Was he still alive, or had he bled out lying in the road? Bloody images flashed across his mind as blood cast off from the ropes and spattered across the walls and ceiling.

The rope whip cut into him again, and this time he couldn't stop himself. He screamed. But his screams became fainter as his body gave up the fight to stay awake.

'You were hunting me, Aaron Hotchner, but I caught you. You thought you knew me, but you were wrong. You thought that you were clever, profiling me. Not so clever now though are you? Now I have brought you down and I am going to kill you. But not before I have had some enjoyment out of you.'

His last thoughts were of Reid, and the coolness of his hands in his as he drifted into sweet oblivion.

-0-0-0-

Of the two addresses that Garcia had identified, the first one was more unlikely. Although in a run down area of town, the house itself was well kept and clean.

The second house was far more likely.

Dave and Morgan took the front of the house, while Emily staked out the back. It was a shabby clapboard building that was once a smart colonial, now divided up into two flats. the downstairs windows were boarded up, but upstairs the windows were curtained with grubby nets.

Rossi and Morgan quickly mounted the stairs and stood either side of the front door, their guns pointing at the floor, their arms straight.

'FBI! Open the door!' shouted Rossi. He nodded to Morgan who shot off the lock and kicked open the door. Instantly the two men separated and 'cleared' the rooms that opened off the short dark corridor.

'No body here.' Dave said. Morgan nodded. 'We need to look around and find any clue as to where she might be holding Hotch.'

Emily joined them from outside, and the three agents started to check out the rooms for anything that might give Hotch up.

They found nothing. There was nothing to indicate that Hotch had ever been there. There were however photographs of a young woman with a small child around the room. Emily opened a wardrobe, and quickly called Morgan and Rossi over.

'Come and take a look at this.'

There were no clothes in the wardrobe, but the inside of the doors were covered with a montage of photographs of the dead women. They were pictures taken, probably with a cell phone, of the women going about their daily existence, walking with their children, going to work, coming home again at night. There were some pictures taken on the bus.

And all of them had crosses through their faces.

But on the back of the wardrobe were pictures of Hotch and his family. Haley taking Jack shopping, in the park, outside his nursery. There were some of Hotch with his son. There was a cross through Haley and Jack.

There was a cross through Hotch too.

Where had she taken him.

And were they too late now to save him?


	6. Spencer

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 6  
Spencer

"_**Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so." ~ David Grayson**_

Reid sat at the table looking at the map. There was something he wasn't seeing. If the woman lived in the area inside the red ring, then where had she taken Hotch, and why? It was against her MO.

He turned to the video and replayed the press conference. It was then that the MO changed. She had said he was cocky and confident. That had thrown her and she had killed Haley, and probably thought she had killed Jack too.

She wanted to hurt Hotch, so the chances were that he was still alive.

He looked back at the map. Where? Where was she keeping him?

He stood up from his seat and paced the room. His shoulder was hurting, but he wanted to find Hotch.

The memory of his hand in his sent a shiver down his spine. He sat and looked at the map again. She had somewhere else to take her victim, somewhere that she could get to easily. She hadn't had long to get the place prepared, so probably already had access to it.

His cell phone rang. It was Morgan.

'We've found the UnSub's home, but Hotch isn't here.' Morgan said.

'I'm looking into that now.' Reid said. 'I need the address of the UnSub.'

'We have a name. Mae Claire. The address is 1123 NW Street.'

Reid closed his phone and went back to his map.

He had an idea.

-0-0-0-

The weight on his shot shoulder kept Hotch from staying in a faint for long. He woke slowly, his head throbbing with dehydration, and his back was hurting. He was still facing the wall. He tried to turn, but the cuffs holding him to the rings were too tight, and they dug into his flesh and the blood ran down his arms, soaking what was left of his clothes.

'Are you still here?' he called softly. There was no answer. He was alone.

He still needed to drink. The little that he had taken he had thrown up into the bucket.

'I need..... some water.' he gasped, attempting to turn around again. He winced at the cuffs cut deeper into his wrists.

There was a movement behind him. Hands touched his back.

'You've been hurt.' the woman said. 'I will make you better.'

'What is your n-name.' he stammered. He needed to make some kind of dialogue with her, gain her trust to give him a chance of escape. Suddenly she poured something onto his back, and he screamed as the iodine touched the wounds. She rubbed the iodine roughly into the deep gashes, and Hotch cried out in pain and tried to arch away from her touch, but his movement was limited.

'This will make you better.' she said, pouring on more.

The pain was too much to bear, and as she touched the wounds again, he passed out.

-0-0-0-

Reid drove quickly through the evening traffic, and out of the city. He had an idea, but it was only an idea. He had no proof, and he needed to check it out for himself before he told the others. He had his cell if they needed to contact him.

His shoulder was sore, but as long as he didn't move it around too much it was bearable. Finding Hotch was his priority, and he was finding it fairly easy to ignore the pain in his arm.

Once outside the city limits, it was fairly easy not to move his arm too much. The road was straight for the first few miles. He didn't need to turn off the road until he had left the city behind him.

When he turned onto the dirt track, then it became a bit more difficult. The road was rutted and muddy in places, and each bump in the surface reverberated through to his shoulder and he grasped the wheel harder to compensate.

_If you are there, Hotch, I will find you......._

And again he felt Hotch's hand in his, and the now familiar tingle through his spine hit him like a soft wave.

The house at the end of the drive was in darkness. He parked the car in the trees, and walked the last hundred yards to the door. It was closed, but it wasn't locked. He carefully turned the handle and pushed it open just enough for him to squeeze through.

It suddenly crossed his mind that if he was wrong about this, he was breaking and entering, and could be in a lot of trouble with no warrant or invitation to go in. But he was almost certain that he was right. Hotch was here somewhere, and he meant to find him.

He pushed the door closed, and took a step into the darkness. He stood still for a moment for his eyes to get used to it.

He was standing in a large hallway, the floor covered with old mosaic tiles, and the walls were panelled with dark wood. At one time it would have been rich and ostentatious, but now it was shabby, and uncared for. He turned off his phone, and took his gun from his belt and held it parallel to his leg, ready to shoot if necessary, and he pushed open the first door

-0-0-0-

Hotch jerked awake again as his weight pulled on his injured arm His back pain was excruciating, and he closed his eyes to try to control his reaction to the iodine in his wounds. He bit down on his lip.

'It will stop it becoming infected and you will live longer.' she whispered in his ear. 'So I will have more time with you before you die.' She pushed her hands into his hair and gently tilted his head back. She breathed into his ear and her fingers became tighter in his hair. She pulled his head back hard. 'And you will die, you know that don't you.'

Hotch tried to speak but his neck was being pulled back at an impossible angle. All he managed was an agonised groan. She smashed his head forwards onto the wall. He felt his nose break and blood run down his face from his cracked forehead.

'I'll leave you to think about that for a little while. Then I will come back and we can continue getting to know each other.'

He heard the door close, and he was bathed in a wedge of moonlight once again.

-0-0-0-

'Where the hell has he gone?' Morgan raged, pacing up and down the small room. Dave was sitting looking at the map. Reid had left a note saying he was following up a lead, but gave no information as to what that lead was. Dave tried his cell again, but it was still switched off.

'He knows not to switch off his cell.' Dave said.

'That was Hotch's rule.' Morgan said. 'With Hotch missing he probably reasoned that he could turn it off.'

'Well he had better have a damn good reason.'

'If there's a clue here, we should be able to find it.' Emily said, turning the map around so that she could see it properly.

'If Reid found a clue in this, there's absolutely no guarantee that we will.'

Dave sighed and stared at the map. It didn't seem to make any difference that the map was now upside down. It just looked like a tangle of coloured lines.

He tried the phone again.

-0-0-0-

Reid closed the door behind him and tried the next one.

The curtains were drawn in this room, and even though it was a full moon, the room was dark. He blinked as his eyes got used to the blackness. The furniture was covered in white sheets, and there was dust and cobwebs everywhere but there was no one there. He backed into the hall and closed the door.

The third door rendered the same information, although this room was a kitchen, it looked as if no one cooked in it. Nothing was out of place, but all the surfaces were covered with a layer of dust.

Slowly, Gun ready, he mounted the stairs. There was a creak as the third step took his weight, and he froze in mid stride. Keeping to the edges, he reached the top and started to check each room in turn once again.

A bedroom. Chintz counterpane and curtains, which were open, and a stream of silver moonlight cut through the air. Dust particles floated in the beam. He closed the door and went to the next.

Another bedroom. This one was richly decorated in heavy velvet and satin, deep rich reds and purples.

The third was a bathroom. This was different. It showed signs of occupancy; shower gel and toothbrush on the shelf, soap in the soap dish.

He went in and looked around. There was no razor or anything to indicate that a man used the room. He closed the door silently and checked the last room.

This was a small sitting room. The floor was littered with food packets and detritus, and there were some bottles of water on a shelf.

Also on the shelf with the water was a ridged bottle of a clear liquid. Reid removed the stopper and sniffed the contents. There was no smell to it, but he was fairly certain it was poison.

He took the bottle to the bathroom sink and tipped it away, and filled it with water from the tap. Now, whatever happens, she would not be able to give Hotch the poison. He replaced the bottle and left the room.

There were no signs of Hotch here. He went down the stairs and checked out the door to the basement. He was surprised that is wasn't locked. Carefully he made his way down the stairs into the darkness.

As his eyes got used to it, he saw that the windows around the top of the walls were mostly open, and moonlight streamed in. The room was empty and Hotch wasn't here either.

He turned and went back up the stairs.

-0-0-0-

She wasn't away for long this time. She whispered in his ear.

'Someone has found my lair.' she said. 'Let's call him across.'

She made a fist and pressed her knuckles into his shoulder wound.

Hotch screamed. He felt the blood well up as she ground her fist into the wound, the pain was everything. He screamed until he passed out, and she left him hanging from the cuffs.

-0-0-0-

Reid was half way up the stairs of the basement when he heard the scream. It filled the silver night and the horror of the scream overwhelmed him. He ran up the remaining stairs two at a time and out of the front door of the house.

Outside the atmosphere held an aura of foreboding. The night was bathed in silver, and the shadows cast by the moon through the trees looked like twitching fingers reaching for him. He stood still and listened. That was when the scream came again; a long drawn out howl of agony. He raced in the direction of the sound, his heart beating hard in his chest as adrenalin saturated his blood. There was a row of outbuildings in front of him. He kicked open the door of the first one, but like the rooms in the house it was empty. He went along the line of doors and checked each one in turn, but there was nothing there.

He spun around as the scream came again, weaker this time. It was coming from behind the outbuildings.

He rounded the end of the row, and just beyond, there was a small prefabricated shed about eight feet square, with a window along the side facing him.

He went to the door and tried to get in. The door moved but it felt as if there was something on the inside preventing him from entering.

_Hold on, Hotch, I'm coming....._

He forced the door open, jarring his injured shoulder, but ignoring the pain. All he could think about was finding Hotch.

He was hanging, blood smeared and unconscious, on the wall opposite the door. He ran forward and held him around the waist. There were some keys on the floor next to him, and Reid picked them up, hoping that they would fit the cuffs.

They did, and he caught Hotch's weight as he slumped into his arms. He was too distracted by having found Hotch that it did not occur to him how odd it was that the keys had been left there for him to find.

He didn't even feel it as the iron bar came down on the back of his head. He dropped Hotch and fell to the ground.

She threw the bar aside and looked down at her captives with a smile.

_Oh now this should be real fun!_


	7. Aaron

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 7  
Aaron

"_**Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices." - Alfred A Montapert**_

Reid gradually became aware of himself. He was lying on his back, and he could feel dampness through his shirt. He tried to move and the stabbing pain in his head stopped him short. He groaned and raised his hand to his head, where blood had congealed in his long hair. His hand came away sticky and wet. He opened his eyes slowly. The light in the little room was brighter now, and the birds were singing their dawn chorus.

His other arm was chained to something. He tried to lift it but the pain in his shoulder prevented much movement. He carefully sat up and looked down.

His wrist was cuffed to Hotch.

Hotch lay unmoving next to him. In the dawn light blood stood out starkly on his pale skin. His dark eyes were bruised, and dried blood was smeared across his face. His shirt hung in bloody rags from his body. Reid reached out and felt for a pulse.

Hotch's skin was cold and clammy, but he had a pulse.

'Hotch.' Reid said. 'Hotch, wake up.'

There was no movement from him. Reid tried to swing his legs off the bed, and that was when he realised that his ankle was chained to something. He had a manacle on his left ankle, and Hotch had one on his right. The other ends were attached to the bed. Reid sat up and pulled at the metal ring around his ankle. His shoes and socks had been taken, and he noticed that Hotch's had been also. The ring was tight and his foot felt numb already.

And no body knew they were there.

A feeling of nausea washed over him. He was trapped here and he had not left the team with a clue how to find him. He knew that they had the same information that he had, but he should have left a detailed note.

If Claire had meant to kill Hotch, she would probably kill him too, and she would get away with it, because this so called genius had made a huge and fatal error.

He turned back to Hotch again. He was beginning to stir, and Reid touched his forehead tentatively.

'Hotch....'

Hotch forced open his swollen eyes. His face hurt, and he was finding it difficult to breathe through his broken nose. He lifted his cuffed hand to his face and then focused past them and looked at Reid. He tried to speak, but all that he could manage was a dry throated groan.

'I'll get you some water.' Reid said, but Hotch shook his head.

'No....... poisoned.' he croaked with difficulty.

'But you need to drink.' He stood up and shouted, 'We need some water in here.'

Hotch attempted to sit up. Reid put his arm around him and helped him. 'We need..... to get out.' he said. Reid helped Hotch sit with his feet on the floor, and with his arm around Hotch's waist, they stood together.

'I need to try the door.' Reid said. He stepped away from Hotch. Hotch tried to steady himself on the bed with his injured arm, but his legs gave way and he fell to the floor. Reid turned back to him.

'I am so sorry, Hotch. I didn't realise........'

'It's ok.' he breathed in reply, and struggled to get onto his hands and knees. Reid helped him back onto the bed where he laid back down, panting for breath.

Reid stroked Hotch's brow. 'I need to get you out of these cuffs.' he said.

Hotch held his hand up so that Reid could see, but there was no way he was going to be able to break out. He checked the metal rings on his ankle again, and ran his hands along the chain to find the other end of it. It was bolted to the angle of the bed frame. Again, it was secure. He sat back on the bed.

'Hotch?.....'

But Hotch was passed out on the blood soaked mattress and could not answer.

Reid lay down next to Hotch and put his arms around him. Very gently, so as not to hurt him, he drew him closer and held him tight. He pressed his face into his hair and tasted the metallic blood on his lips. He tried to think of a way out but he could only think of Hotch, and by his mistake he had made things more difficult for him.

He knew Hotch would give his life for a team member so easily, and now Reid had given the UnSub extra leverage to hurt Hotch.

He lay awake holding his friend as the sun rose and the stream of light coming through the window moved across the floor of the room. It was probably several hours before the woman came back to her captives. Reid sat up as he heard the woman unlock the door.

She didn't speak. She went to Reid and pulled him off the bed by his hair. He yelped as the cuffs on his wrist dug in as a result of the sudden movement. He twisted his head round to see Hotch who was lying still as death on the bed. He started to call his name but the word came out as a cry as she wrenched his head back.

With a gun at his head, she pulled him across to the wall where she attached his hand to one of the rings in the wall. Then she unfastened the cuff holding him to Hotch. Reid took his chance as his good arm was free, and he swung at the woman, catching her behind her left ear. She dropped the keys and staggered as he drew back to strike her again. With the element of surprise gone now, though, Reid missed, and struck the air. Mae stood just out of his reach.

'You shouldn't have done that.' she hissed, her hand holding her head. She took the gun to Hotch and held it against his bare foot.

'No please don't hurt him!' cried Reid as a bullet clicked into the chamber.

'This is just a lesson for you.' She squeezed the trigger, and Hotch's leg moved as the bullet cut a hole through his foot. Hotch woke suddenly with a cry as fresh blood ran into the mattress. Reid felt tears run down his face.

'Why did you do that?' he asked in dismay. 'Why him? He's done nothing to hurt you? Why are you hurting him?'

'Remember the lesson. If you do something to upset me, I hurt him, and if he does,' she indicated Hotch with her gun. 'I hurt you.'

Hotch was holding his shot foot trying to stop the bleeding. His eyes were screwed up against the pain, and he was biting his lip, drawing blood.

Mae wrenched Reid's hand above his head and clipped his wrist into a restraint. Leaving Reid alone, she went back to Hotch who was rocking and grasping his foot.

'You have your friend over there to thank for that.' she said.

Hotch looked up at her with pain filled eyes. He had no doubt that she would keep her word and she would kill him when she was ready. She had killed Haley and a child in cold blood, and he thought she would have no qualms about killing him slowly.

She went over to Reid and punched him in the face. His head rocked back and hit the wall, opening up the wound and he felt the blood soak into his hair and run down his neck.

'Hotchner, I want you to watch carefully what I am going to do.' she said. Hotch looked across at Reid. There was nothing he could do to protect him. It was his job to protect the team, and he was failing again.

'Don't hurt him. I am his Boss, anything he does is my responsibility.'

She went across to him and stood just out of his reach. 'You will be punished for your over confidence. You will watch your subordinate suffer.'

She left the room briefly and returned with a length of rough sawn wood. She held it like a base ball bat above her head and behind her.

'Now watch carefully, and draw a lesson from what you are about to see.' and she brought it down across Reid's chest.

He gasped as all the air left his lungs. A red line showed and along it's length blood welled up in droplets. Reid hung forward in the restraints. Hotch wanted to get off the bed to help Reid, but he couldn't stand. He tried to get off the bed, but as he placed his bloody foot on the ground, his legs buckled and he fell to the ground. He reached towards Reid, and she brought the wooden stake down on his arm. He cried out and snatched his arm back. Then she went back to Reid. He was breathing heavily hanging from the restraints.

She raised the stake and smacked it across his solar plexus. Reid thought he was going to die. His lungs froze and sweat sprung out in beads on his forehead. He wanted to scream out in agony, but as his nervous system reset he was unable to do anything. When at last he managed to take a breath, it was as he fainted.

Hotch rolled onto his back. He thought his arm was broken. He tried to move his fingers to no avail.

'Please let him go. He has done nothing.'

You have to be joking. Look at the state you are in because I hurt him. What is he to you?' she asked. 'Your lover? I saw how he held you. There is no chance I will be letting him go all the time I can use him to hurt you.

'He is not my lover. He is simply a colleague. Let him go and do what you want with me. He has nothing to do with this.'

Mae laughed. 'I have been watching you for some time, and your so called family. It hurt you when I killed them. Now I will kill your lover and hurt you more. Before you die, you will have nothing left. I will enjoy seeing you break.'

'Killing Reid will not break me. He means nothing to me.'

'You are lying!' she shrieked, and swung the wood against Hotch's fingers. He felt them snap as he tried to move them away. He felt hot tears again. He could do nothing; he was helpless under this mad woman's assault. He closed his eyes and waited. She hit him on the side of the head and a deep blackness covered his vision behind his eyelids and he fainted.

-0-0-0-

Mae took the bus. She loved this part of her work – looking for a new victim. There were several potential ones on this bus – slutty women who had children they couldn't possibly care for. She hated them. When she thought of her own child, cold now in death, she felt a rage build up in her heart. She could have cared for her child, so cruelly snatched away.

There was her mark, sitting at the front of the bus with a grizzling brat. She waited until the young woman got off the bus, and she followed her out onto the pavement.

The woman was going home. She lived in a run down block of apartments, a totally unsuitable place to bring up a child. Mae followed at a distance and watched the woman get into the lift.

The fifth floor. She took the stairs two at a time, and came out onto the fifth floor as the lift doors opened, and the woman walked along the corridor to the apartment she called home. Mae watched as she got out her key and pushed the snotty child in ahead of her.

Now all Mae had to do was wait. Wait for the night when she could go into the woman's apartment and rid the country of another sponging slapper and her filthy spawn.

Then back to Hotchner and Reid. She shivered thinking of the fun she was going to have that night.


	8. Ryan

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 8  
Ryan

""_**A warrior never worries about his fear."" – Carlos Castaneda**_

She was used to waiting. Most of her life had been waiting. Now she felt the excitement building up as she thought of what she was going to do. She reached into the bag she was carrying and retrieved the hammer that she was going to use. The child would die from a single stab wound. She didn't want to hurt the child, but he would be too traumatised to be left living.

Besides, her child was dead.

It was getting dark now. She couldn't go in yet though, because the slut might still be up. These women often went to bed late, spending their time getting stoned or drunk or both. They didn't deserve children. Not when she had lost hers.

Ryan was such a sweet child. He was just starting to talk when he went. The precious child died in his sleep. Well, so would this child. No suffering, no sense of loss, just eternal peace.

The mother (not that she deserves such a wonderful title) could rot in hell.

She glanced at her watch. Two am. Time to go.

-0-0-0-

Aaron woke up on the cold rough floor. There wasn't a part of him that wasn't hurting. The new injuries to his arm and hands were throbbing with each heart beat, and his foot was pumping blood in a pool on the floor.

He sat up. It wasn't easy. His hands hurt too much for him to be able to lean on them, and he rested on his elbows. He looked up to Reid. It was getting dark again, and he realised he had been out cold for most of the day.

He touched his ear with the back of his hand. There was blood there, and the now familiar tinnitus whistled shrilly at him.

'Reid! Wake up, Reid.....'

There was no sound or movement from him. His head hung forwards and his long blood soaked hair fell across his face.

'Reid....... Spencer.....'

Hotch was having difficulty speaking. His throat felt like sand and he was light headed with thirst. He rolled onto his side and forced himself onto his hands and knees. He crawled with difficulty to where Reid was hanging, dripping blood onto the floor.

Using the wall as leverage, he managed to stand, keeping his shot foot off the ground. The chain attaching his other ankle to the bed was pulled tight and digging into his flesh. He swayed as he rested his wrists on the wall next to Reid's head. Painfully he lifted Reid's chin.

'Reid please wake up. We need to find a way of getting out of here.'

He tried to feel for a pulse, but his fingers were broken, and all he could feel with them was intense pain. He didn't know if Reid was dead or alive. He couldn't see his chest move, and he was so afraid that he had died.

Hotch sank to the ground at Reid's feet. He didn't have the strength to get back to the bed. He rolled onto his back and concentrated on breathing. He closed his passionate dark eyes and fell into nothingness.

-0-0-0-

It was time. Mae broke the window on the front door of the apartment and reached through and unlocked the door. The door opened silently, and she stepped into the hall and closed the door softly behind her.

The hall was clean but shabby. Paint was peeling from the skirting boards and the paper was peeling along the top. She shuddered. How could anyone bring a child home to this?

Carefully she opened the doors one at a time to find the bedroom. The second door she opened revealed the woman asleep in her bed. The child wasn't with her. Mae stepped forwards, and raised the hammer above her head. The woman on the bed opened her eyes just in time to see the hammer come down. Her blood hit the ceiling and the walls as Mae brought the weapon down again and again until there was little left of the woman's face. She put the hammer down and got out the knife, and turned to look in the other rooms for the child.

She almost ran into the man who came back into the room at that moment.

-0-0-0-

This MO was different. There were three bodies this time, something new. The man was slumped in the bedroom doorway. It looked as though he had put up a fight for his life, and had defensive wounds on his arms and stab wounds in his neck and face. There were bloody foot prints across the hall to the child's bedroom, and out of the door. The child was killed like the others, but this time in his bed.

The police had been called when the postman saw the foot prints on the passage way floor and going down the stairs.

A whole family wiped out. Rossi felt sick.

The CSI's were processing the scene. Morgan and Rossi were trying to enter Mae's mind.

'There is rage here.' Morgan said. 'But not with the child.'

'It's as if the child murder was a mercy killing, after killing the family.' Dave said. 'I think she made a mistake here. It's the first time she has killed a woman who was married and not on welfare.'

'Either a mistake or she doesn't care any more.'

'If we could only figure out what Reid saw in the geo profile, we'd have her.' Morgan said with frustration.

One of the CSI's came up to them.

'Before you go, we have found something else different here. Come, let me show you.'

Rossi and Morgan followed her to the front door.

'Look here.' she said, pointing to a gravitational blood spot about the size of a penny. A yellow sign with '19' on it stood by the side of it. A photographer stood aside so that the profilers could get a better look.

'It looks as if our UnSub has been cut.' Dave said. 'Call the local hospitals and see if there have been any knife wounds in, particularly to the hands.' Dave said to Morgan. 'If there are any, go and show them the sketch.'

Morgan nodded and went outside to make the calls.

They were closing in now. But would they find her in time to save their colleagues? It had been two days now. They were in a race against time.

-0-0-0-

Mae was still in a rage when she left the house. Her hand was hurting where she had cut herself. She had gone straight to the Emergency Room to have it stitched. There was blood all over her clothes but she maintained that it was her own blood from the hand wound. The doctor stitched the wound and let her go. But he wasn't going to forget her for a long time.

Mae unlocked the room where her captives were. They had been alone for the whole night. Light was now streaming through the window onto the two men.

She buried her hand into Hotchner's hair and pulled him back to the bed. He moaned softly as he was dragged across the floor. She noticed how his skin felt dry and thin to the touch, and wondered how long it would take for him to die of dehydration.

She couldn't get him onto the bed, so she left him lying on the floor.

'Wake up Hotchner. There's no point in me trying to hurt you if you are asleep.'

She took hold of his bloody foot and twisted it. Hotchner woke up with a cry of pain.

'I want you awake.' she hissed in his ear and returned to Reid.

She pulled his head up and checked whether he was still alive and was pleased when she found that he was. She shook him roughly, but his eyes stayed closed.

Reid was having trouble breathing. Each breath he took felt as if he was being stabbed in the chest. He had several broken ribs and he kept his breathing light and shallow. Mae pressed on his chest and he screamed in agony.

'Leave him alone.' Hotch's voice was dry as autumn leaves and was barely audible. She ignored him and punched Reid in the abdomen. The breath was knocked out of him and he tried to curl forwards. She pulled his head up and laughed.

'This is too easy.' she smirked. She went and sat on the edge of the bed where Hotch was lying at her feet. She pushed at him with the toe of her shoe. Hotch groaned and tried to move out of the way. She kicked him viciously. Her hand was hurting and she wasn't in the mood for being anything but brutal.

Hotch turned onto his front and attempted to climb onto the bed. All his efforts were to protect Reid to bring this woman's violence onto himself. He leaned on the bed with his elbows, and she kicked him under the chin and sent him sprawling on his back.

His strength was going. He had never been afraid of death, but he was afraid to die and leave Reid at her mercy. He fought to stay conscious.

'What happened...... to your ..... hand?' he asked. He knew the Stockholm Syndrome only too well. He tried to mimic the pattern.

'I killed again today.' she said. 'I had to kill a man and he did this to me.' she said. The anger in her voice was palpable.

'Please let Reid go, and keep me.' Hotch tried again his voice gasping and faint. 'He is .......innocent. He has never hurt you.'

Mae pressed her foot lightly on Hotch's hand. He gasped in pain as broken ends of bones ground together. Then suddenly she pressed down hard. He tried to wrench his hand away, but the arm was immobilised, and he couldn't move it. He tried to bite back the scream that was on his lips but he was unable to.

'Only babies are innocent.' she growled.

'Is that why you kill ......the children .....quickly?' he asked.

'They don't deserve the agonies of life, the trauma of losing a parent. So I save them from that. Save them from a life of poverty and deprivation.'

'So why did you kill......... my child?' Hotch was struggling now to speak, but had to keep up the dialogue.

'I killed him to hurt you, Aaron Hotchner.' she said, and smiled down at Hotch.

'Why do you want to hurt me?'

'To knock that cocksure confidence out of you. You are a pathetic human being, only strong when surrounded by your minions. You will die for that mistake.'

'Then let Reid go.'

She stood up and stepped across Hotch and went to Reid. He was unconscious hanging on the wall. She released the cuffs and he crumpled to the ground. She dragged him to the full extent of the chain, and turned back to Hotch.

'Your turn.' she said nastily, pulling him along the ground by his injured arms. He was too weak to try to get away, and he hoped that Reid would have enough energy to escape.

She pulled his arms up one at a time and fastened his wrists into the rings on the wall. He saw Reid's blood smeared on the concrete with his own, and visions of the crime scene unit processing the room flashed across his mind.

His weight was on his broken arm and injured shoulder. He put his foot on the ground to take the weight, but it was not enough. His feet could barely touch the floor. He held his head up and looked at her defiantly. He guessed that this was where she killed him. He thought Reid was probably dead or dying. She couldn't do anything else to Reid now to hurt him.

The pain in his arms was making her feel sick, and nausea washed over him on continual waves. He leaned forward and threw up nothing, his stomach wrenching and tearing him apart. Mae stood back from him and waited. When the last wave had passed over him, he looked into the woman's eyes.

'Do your damnedest.' he said softly. 'You will not break me.' and his head fell forward with exhaustion.


	9. Endgame

Cast off  
Chapter 9  
Endgame

"_**You cannot **__**escape**__** from death except by dying. You are condemned.**__**" – Howard Nemerov**_

'A doctor remembers treating a woman for a cut hand. He said that she was covered in blood. I'm going to see him now.' Morgan said. Emily stood up.

'I'll come with you.' she said, anxious to do something. The two days since Reid disappeared had gone so slowly, with no breaks in the case; she was becoming despondent. The latest killings were dreadful, and it showed that the UnSub was devolving into a spree, and they needed to catch her before she killed again. There was hope in the team that holding Hotch and Reid would be enough to make her hold off, but now they thought whatever she was holding them for was over.

They were probably dead by now. It was hard not to think that way. Hotch always said until there is evidence to the contrary, assume the victim is still alive.

But her heart was torn..........

She joined Morgan in the elevator.

-0-0-0-

She had gone again. Hotch had no idea how long she would be. Sometimes she stayed away for a whole day, other times she just went out to collect a weapon. He called to Reid. He hadn't moved since the woman had dragged him away, and Hotch was afraid he was dead.

'Reid, please, wake up.' Hotch's voice was harsh and dry, and speaking was painful. 'Reid if you can hear me, please show me.'

Reid could hear Aaron, and he made a supreme effort to obey his boss. He lifted his arm from the floor and reached towards him. Hotch closed his eyes in relief. He was still alive.

'Reid, the only chance we have is if she thinks one of us is dead. Do you think you can do that?'

Reid turned his head carefully to look at Aaron. He nodded slowly, and closed his eyes.

Hotch waited. He had a plan of sorts. If he could fake Stockholm, it might just work. There was certainly enough stress.

He carefully looked down to the floor where a puddle of blood had collected. It wasn't getting any bigger, he had stopped bleeding, but his leg was aching now and soon he would have to shift his position. Then he bleeding would start again.

The door creaked open. The woman went straight to Reid. Aaron saw him stiffen as she went to him. She kicked him roughly, but he stayed still and didn't make a sound.

_Well done, Reid, you might just make it...._

She kicked him again in the stomach.

'He's finished.' she said, picking up the wooden baton she had struck him with earlier.

'What.... do you want.... m-me t-to do?' Hotch said softly as she raised the baton. 'Please don't hurt me any more. I will do wh-what ever you want.'

She lowered the wood.

'I want you to suffer.' she said.

'You can't make me suffer any more. You have taken everything – my wife, my child, my l-lover.....All I have is you......'

She dropped the wood on the floor. It clattered as it splashed in the congealing blood around Aaron's feet. She stood on tip toes and gently kissed his broken mouth

'Maybe you have other uses.' she said, kissing him again, touching his bruised and beaten face, she held it in her hand and turned him to look at her.

'I only have you now, please don't hurt me.' he said, and he reached his head forward to hers and kissed her back.

She took a key from her pocket and undid the cuff on his right arm. His leg gave way and his weight was on his left broken arm. He cried out in agony as she pulled his right arm down to his side.

'I don't have the key to the leg irons, so don't try anything.' she said.

He could hardly hear what she was saying. The pain was excruciating as the broken bone pulled apart under his weight, and he fought to stay conscious. Things were changing, and he could not afford the time to pass out. She unclasped his other wrist and he fell at her feet, screaming in agony.

'Get on the bed.' she said.

'I c-can't – help me, please.' he begged, struggling to get on his knees.

She got hold of him under the arms and dragged him to the bed.

'Now get on it.' she said. He rested his elbows on the blood soaked mattress and forced himself onto the bed. He lay on his back, panting and crying as the pain in his broken body peaked and subsided. She clipped his wrist, onto the bed rail.

_Oh god it hurts....... oh god oh god........ help me......_

Again she kissed him, and he put all his effort into kissing her back. All he wanted to do was throw up. He didn't think he could hold out much longer.

'Please.....' he whispered. 'Let me recover, then I will be .....ready for you.....'

She turned his head roughly, and he yelped as his neck cracked.

'I will leave you with the corpse.' she said. 'Then I will come back for you.'

'Please, take it away. I c-can't stand to be near it.'

'You will have to put up with it, you were lovers, you can live with the corpse.'

And she left, and Aaron heard the door lock behind her.

'Reid.....Sp-encer....'

Reid groaned in reply.

'I think it's work..... ing Reid. Don't ....move.'

Reid stayed motionless in the cold floor. Hotch prayed to his neglected god that this game plan would work.

It was their only chance..... At least one of them would get out of this alive.

The door opened.

'You've had long enough now.' she said. 'Now I will see if you are worth saving.'

She had a knife in her hand and she used it to carefully cut away his clothes. He shivered in the cold air. It was evening now, three days..... or was it four. Aaron could not remember.

She touched him.

'Reid's body...... please t-take it away.' he said. 'I can feel its eyes on me. I want it to be just the t-two of us.'

'Do you think I'm that stupid?' she shouted. Aaron cringed from her.

'It's his.... s-soul. P-please, take it away....' and Aaron started to cry.

'OK!' she barked. 'I'll get rid of it.'

She dragged Reid by his arms to the extent of the chain. Then she took a key from over the doorframe and unlocked the fetter on his ankle. She replaced the key, opened the door, and dragged him outside.

Then she came in, closing the door behind her.

'Happy now?' she hissed.

Aaron tried to smile through smashed lips.

-0-0-0-

Reid could hardly believe it had worked. He had to get away now, get help for Hotch. He lay on his back for a moment trying to catch his breath, and then he rolled onto his side. He had to hurry. He didn't know how much time Hotch was going to be able to give him.

When she discovered the trick, she would probably kill him.

He had to hurry, for both their sakes.

He gasped in pain as he turned onto his front, and pushed himself onto his hands and knees.

He thought back to when they caught Dowd, and the onus had been on him to save Aaron's life. He had come through that time, but the split second when Dowd raised his gun to Hotch's head replayed over and over in his night mares. This one was going to take precedent.

Give me enough time, Aaron, please.... I need time.

He pulled himself up onto his feet and leaned on the wall, breathing shallowly as his broken ribs dug into flesh they had no right to dig into, then he staggered out of the bunker into the night air.

-0-0-0-

'We have her picture, name, address, DNA, everything except where she is!' Morgan slammed down a fist on the desk in frustration.

Dave looked up at him. He wanted to reprimand him, but he understood how he was feeling. They had hit a dead end. Garcia was looking through the security footage from the hospital where Claire had had her hand stitched, but so far she had only found the back of her head.

'We need to get back to her apartment again.' Emily said. 'We must have missed something.'

Dave didn't think he had, but it was better than sitting around getting discouraged.

Morgan's phone trilled.

'What have you got, Babe?'

'A partial plate and a car.' she said excitedly. 'Downloading it to you now. The car turned left when exiting the hospital grounds, driving west out of the city.' She paused, then, 'We are going to find them, aren't we.'

'Of course.' Morgan said, and closed the connection. He was glad Garcia didn't see his expression.

-0-0-0-

Aaron held his breath. He had to give Reid time to get away, and in his condition, it was going to take him a while. He too was thinking of the time when Dowd held them hostage. The split second looking down the barrel of his gun seemed like an eternity at the time, but Reid had come through, as he always did.

This was up to him.

'Do you want me?'

She was standing by the bed looking down at him. He tried to get control over his body.

'This is..... difficult f-for me. It hurts so much.' he said. Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes and overflowed, running down his face into his hair.

'But you said......'

'Give me time. You have hurt me. I need time.' he looked into her unfeeling eyes. 'Kiss me?'

She knelt down by his side and kissed the corner of his mouth. Fighting the nausea welling up inside him, he turned his head and kissed her back. He lifted his arm and touched her face with the back of his hand. She responded, and kissed his mouth more deeply, like a lover.

He didn't respond, and she moved away.

'You were lying to me!' she said angrily, and grabbed a handful of hair.

'N-no, but it hurts s-so much. I want to ....make love with you, b-but I am too .....badly hurt. I n-need time.....please, give me time.....'

'You've had time. You give yourself to me now, or I will leave you to die.'

Aaron looked at her. There had to be something he could do. He had to give Reid more time.

'Kiss me again.'

'I'm through kissing you. I've had it with you. Maybe another beating will help.' She bent down and picked up the wood.

'No! Oh god, please.....no!'

He tried to shout but the words stuck in his dry throat. She dropped the wood.

'You begging me sounds good, Aaron Hotchner.'

He was breathing heavily now, desperate. He wanted to ask for water, but that would mean she would leave the room and find that she had been tricked, and hopefully, Reid's body gone. He raised himself up onto his elbows.

'I want you, but I don't even know your name.'

'I am Mae. Mae Claire.'

'Beautiful.' he croaked. 'Please, Mae, k-kiss m-me.'

'One more chance.' She leaned across him and kissed him deeply, and he kissed her back. He lifted his broken arm and put it around her back. She pulled away.

'Now I want you to touch me.' she said.

'I c-can't, m-my..... fingers are.... broken.'

She pushed her arms behind his back, and pulled him close. As she touched the wounds made by the rope, he cried out. She moved away again.

'Sorry.'

He pulled her close to him, and tried to kiss her. His mouth was dry and sore.

'You need a drink. I'll get you some water.'

She stood up and stepped away from him.

'Please don't .....leave me.' he gasped. She must not open the door. If she does, he would be finished.

'I won't be long.' she smiled, and went to the door.

'Please!' Aaron cried, and the word ended in a dry cough. Even to his own ears it sounded like a death rattle.

She came back and kissed his bloody forehead.

'I won't be long.'

She opened the door


	10. Reid

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 10  
Reid

"_**Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself." – Joseph Campbell**_

Reid staggered on in the darkness. The moon was full but the sky was full of clouds. Every so often, the clouds would part and light would shine on Reid's pathway. Not that it did much good. He had no idea where he was going, and he was having trouble remaining on his feet.

But this was one UnSub that needed to be stopped.

He thought about Aaron, still at the mercy of a psychopath. When she found him gone, she would take out her anger on Aaron, of that he was certain. Whether she would beat him or kill him, he couldn't be sure. His brain wasn't as sharp as he was used to, and profiling her was not easy for him in his current state.

He tried to run, but almost immediately fell forwards onto the woodland floor. He lay still for a moment trying to catch his breath. It was dark, the moon was hidden behind clouds, and Reid could hear sounds that he had not heard before – the sounds of little animals in the undergrowth, the cries of birds of prey waiting for a chance to attack them. He shivered and sat up carefully, breaths coming shallow and fast. He needed to get help and soon.

Time was running out for Aaron.

He pulled himself up b y a tree and continued his flight, hoping that he was travelling in a straight line. His feet were now cut and bleeding as brambles and nettles tore at his bare skin.

The feel of the ground suddenly changed. He knelt down and touched it. He was on a rutted track through the woods. That was good. Where there was a track, surely nearby somewhere there would be people. He began to walk along the edge of the track. He was feeling sick and again he needed to stop. This time he vomited on the ground, his chest heaving and twisting. The clouds suddenly parted, and Reid saw that he was vomiting blood leaving a hot metallic taste in his mouth. His chest was agonisingly painful, as he tried to stop his stomach from heaving. When at last it was over, he sank to his knees and rested on his hands. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to run, but he had to keep going, for Aaron.

He forced himself onto his feet and staggered on........

-0-0-0-

Aaron could see that Reid had gone. He was glad. At least one of them was going to survive this. The woman stared at the place where she had dumped Reid's body, realisation dawning on her that she had been tricked. She turned back towards Aaron, her eyes blazing with rage.

'You are going to die for your deceit!' she yelled.

Aaron knew there was no point in denying it. 'We had to try.' he whispered. 'This way, one of us lives.'

She walked over to him and punched his face. His head rocked to the side, and he realised she was not going to kill him quickly. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth, and his teeth cut the inside of his cheek. He spat the blood out, and closed his eyes, waiting for a further assault.

The assault came with the piece of wood. She smashed it across his stomach, and he groaned in pain, bending up his knees to try to relieve the agony. His mouth filled with blood and he turned his head to the side and coughed gouts of blood onto the bed. He prayed that the torture would be over quickly. He prayed to die.

'You bastard tricked me. You knew he was alive. Now I have to move you.' She raised the wood above her head and brought it down on his face. His cheek bone cracked and he was knocked senseless. She undid his restraints and pulled him off the bed by his hair. He was not able to resist, and fell to the floor. He was unconscious now, and she was having difficulty moving him. But she had to get to a place of safety before Reid got help, and her hiding place discovered.

'Move, damn it Aaron Hotchner!' she cried out in anger. He was too heavy for her to drag him far. She left him for dead and ran out into the night.

-0-0-0-

Reid was almost at the end now. There had been no traffic along the track, but still he carried on. He could see a yellow glow through the trees up ahead, and he hoped it was street lighting. He pushed through the trees, and the ground underfoot became hard like tarmac. The yellow glow was coming from a diner. It looked as if it was closed but he saw two people inside who were mopping the floor and washing tables. He staggered to the door leaving bloody footprints across the tarmac car park, and shook the door in desperation. The woman closest shouted out that they were closed, and went back to her work.

'Please, I need your help!' Reid cried out.

The woman came to the door and stared at him through the glass. The man was unshaven and smeared with blood. His clothes were torn and his feet were bleeding.

'Help me.....' Reid whimpered. He vaguely heard the sound of the lock springing back, and the door opened. He fell forward into the diner and the woman jumped back in fright.

'FBI' Reid said softly, and his eyes rolled and he fainted.

'Help me with this guy!' she called to her colleague. Together they carried Reid into the diner and locked the door again. One of them called 911.

'Did he say FBI?' she asked.

'It sounded like that but he hasn't got any identification on him.'

'Call the police and the emergency services. I'll get something to wrap around him. He's freezing.'

'Is the door locked? Someone might have been chasing him.'

'Yes I locked it.' She stroked the man's face. 'The ambulance and police are on their way. Hold on.'

-0-0-0-

Hotch didn't move from where he had fallen. He was drifting in and out of consciousness, and was aware of the cold concrete on his back. The last beating had done some real damage, and he was bleeding internally. He closed his eyes and waited to bleed out. Reid was safe now, he was sure of that. With his help they would catch Mae, and there would be no more killings, but it was too late for him now.

He turned his head and coughed and vomited onto the floor. He had forgotten the feeling of being without pain, and he hardly felt the agonies of his broken and beaten body twisting and retching. It was as if his body belonged to someone else now. It was no longer his.

A smile flickered across his face as he recalled that she had not killed his little Jacky. He had been taught to run and hide if he was threatened. Aaron hoped that the lesson had born fruit, and his child had hidden in his special place. He remembered him playing on his bike, and calling to him. He thought of him running to him when he went to see him, the small face beaming with joy at seeing his Daddy.

'Don't miss me Jacky Boy.' he said softly, and his world darkened and his eyes closed.

-0-0-0-

Just two miles from where Aaron lay, the paramedics were working on Reid. As one slid a tube into his throat, another was pressing down on his chest to get his heart going again.

Reid had something to tell them, but in his velvety void he was safe and his memory was failing him. He wanted to stay safe and float endlessly, but something was calling him. He had to do something.

Aaron.....

A bolt of electricity shot through him, and jolted his heart into a steady rhythm.

What was it he needed to do.

Aaron needed him.

He had to tell them about Aaron.

He forced his eyes open and looked at the medic. There was something in his throat, and he couldn't speak.

He tried to lift his hands to his face and pull out the tube but there were IVs in his inner arms, and they were restrained.

He couldn't move.

He couldn't tell them.

A tear rolled down his cheek.

-0-0-0-

'I think he said he was FBI but I can't be sure.' the diner manageress said to the cop that had shown up. 'Just thought I ought to mention it.'

The cop wrote it down in his note book and called the station.

'The guy could be one of the missing Feds.' he reported. 'He said he was FBI.'

-0-0-0-

Dave, Morgan and Emily were back at Claire's home when Dave's cell rang. Checking the caller ID, he quickly answered it.

Morgan and Emily stopped what they were doing and watched Dave, waiting with a faint hope.

Dave said, 'Thank you.' and closed his phone.

'Reid has turned up. He's on his way to the hospital now, but he is unconscious, and won't be able to tell us anything. But we have somewhere to search now. Call the police department, and have them send all their available men. We will start the search at daybreak, starting from the diner where Reid was found.'

Day break was only two hours away. When the three agents reached the diner, there were already twenty or so cops waiting for them to organise the search. As the sun came up, Dave called them together.

'We know the direction from which Agent Reid came, from his bloody footprints.' Dave pointed across the road and into the woods. 'Work in pairs, and fan out from here. If you find anything, let me know. Any questions?'

'Are we looking for a body?'

'I hope not. Anything else? Ok, let's go.'

At first the trail was easy to follow. Reid had bled onto the fallen leaves, and had left a bloody trail. After a while though, the trail petered off, and it became more difficult. Dave Emily and Morgan each paired up with one of the cops, and as they went, they checked the low growing undergrowth that could hide a body, god forbid that they find one.

Garcia had said that there weren't any buildings visible on the satellite images, but the tree growth was dense, and huts could easily be missed.

'The army once used the area for training, so there could be concrete bunkers still intact, but there's no records of where they were.' she said.

'Thank you Penelope.' Dave said, and returned the cell phone to his pocket. This was going to be a difficult search.

-0-0-0-

Aaron was only vaguely aware of his surroundings. He felt hot sun on his legs and thought it was probably day time. He had forgotten how many days. Four? Five? That was how long it had been since he had water, and that was what was killing him now. He couldn't close his mouth now. There was no moisture apart from the blood that was slowly seeping into his mouth from a cut cheek. He couldn't swallow, and he couldn't speak.

The cold of the ground he could no longer feel. He couldn't feel anything any more, except pain, and that was like an enveloping mist that touched every part of him. He didn't move. The only movement was of his chest rising and falling as he sucked air into dehydrated lungs. Each breath felt like he was being crushed, and for a moment he stopped breathing. There seemed little point in inflicting more agonies on himself, when he was going to die anyway.

_I hope you made it, Spencer........_

The only sounds he could hear were the trees rustling in the breeze and the sound of birdsong. The warmth on his legs told him it was a lovely day.

He didn't want to die while the sun was shining. He tried to open his eyes to see the day, but he lacked the strength.

He listened to the birds, and suddenly there was a new sound.

His name..... someone was calling his name.....

_I'm here.... oh please find me...._


	11. Eyes

**Cast Off  
**Chapter11  
Eyes

Hands.

Hands touching him, lifting him......

The sounds of voices.....

'Agent Hotchner..... Aaron, can you hear us? Stay with us, don't go to sleep......

He tried to lift his arm, to show them he was still there. From somewhere deep inside he summoned the strength to open his eyes.

He couldn't see anything, only blackness, he wondered if he was blind, but the movement was noticed.

He heard a familiar voice among the clamour.

David......

Aaron tried to turn his head, but they had him in a neck brace. He was immobilised.

He blinked again. Someone held his eye open, but he didn't see the light shine in it.

Something cold in his arm....... he understood what they were doing......

A hand on his arm, David's voice.

'We have Jack, Aaron. He's safe.'

Aaron blinked.

_Thank you._

'And we have Reid, he's recovering.'

Aaron wanted to speak, but his mouth was dry and cracked.

'They are taking you to the hospital, Emily will ride with you. We are searching for the UnSub. I'll catch up with you soon.' Another squeeze to his arm and he was gone.

Aaron breathed in a shuddering breath. A cold feeling again, and he slipped into black velvet.

-0-0-0-

'Is he going to get through this?' Dave asked the medic.

'He's been severely beaten. He had internal injuries, and he has been blinded by a hit in the face. It might be temporary, caused by blood clots. But the real danger here is dehydration. He is very poorly. We have to go.'

Dave nodded and stood back, watching his best and only real friend get strapped into the ambulance.

'Emily, ride with Hotch. Morgan and I will catch up with you when we've caught this woman. Morgan, make sure Garcia knows we have him back.'

Morgan was already on the phone to her.

'We've found him, Baby Girl. He's safe.'

Morgan could hear Garcia was crying.

'He was so sweet to me after that last arson case. I couldn't bear it if something took him from us. I'm driving up to you.'

'I'll be waiting.' He closed his phone. 'Garcia is coming up. When she arrives I'll send her to the hospital.'

'Let's get this search underway.'

-0-0-0-

The journey to the hospital was harrowing. Hotch was under sedation, and to Emily it looked as if every part of him was bruised or bloody. The medics called ahead, and an OR was made ready to take him straight there. The hit across the stomach had torn something inside, and it needed urgent repair. Emily cringed inside as she heard the medic go through Hotch's injuries to the surgeon.

She couldn't hold his hand, because all his fingers were broken. She couldn't imagine how much pain just that would have caused him, but to be hit hard enough to cause internal injuries was beyond her imagination. Hotch was a strong healthy man. Most would have died.

She stroked his hair back from his face, and gently touched him. It was the only thing she could do, and she didn't want him to think he was alone. Just in case he knew what was happening around him.

'We love you, Hotch. Don't you be leaving us!'

A tear caught in his closed lashes before it ran down into his hair.

That was when Emily realised that she was crying too. She wiped away the tears and attempted to get a hold of herself. She looked up to see the hospital barrier opening to allow the ambulance through. She turned back to Hotch.

'Hotch, we are coming up to the hospital now. You will be going to the OR and I'll see you when you are done.'

Emily stood back as the gurney was slid out from the back of the ambulance to the waiting surgeons. He was whisked out of sight, leaving Emily on the tarmac in the ambulance bay. She felt dazed as she was led to the relatives' room where she sat alone waiting for news. She waited for a few minutes, but she couldn't stand the inactivity. She went to the reception and asked about Reid.

'Agent Reid is in Intensive Care High Dependency Unit. Third floor. You might have to wait until visiting though.'

'Thank you.' Emily tried not to run to the lift. She pressed the lift button several times, a little harder than was necessary. When at last the lift arrived, it was only seconds but to Emily it felt like minutes, she took it to the third floor.

Ried was in a side ward on his own, although there was room for a second bed. Because he was alone, the nursing staff allowed Emily to visit out of hours.

She took a seat by him and told him that they had found Hotch, and he was in theatre. She didn't tell him how ill he was, but she thought that he probably knew.

Reid was being ventilated, but he was awake, and he looked at Emily with huge frightened eyes when she said that Hotch was in theatre.

'He's going to be fine.' she said. She knew it was probably a lie. She remembered that the doctor had said that Hotch was blind. Blind wasn't fine, but she didn't want to upset Reid any more.

Spencer's shot arm was bound again, and his head injury bandaged. His feet, torn and cut on his escape, were swathed in bandages. His rib cage was severely bruised, and Emily could see where the ribs were broken under the surface. Electrodes were taped to his chest and the heart monitor beeped in the background.

She sat by him and took his hand.

'We are going to get you and Hotch through this.' she said, squeezing slightly.

He squeezed back, and the corners of his mouth smiled. She felt tears prick the back of her eyes.

'Just stay strong.'

-0-0-0-

The search party was now looking for the killer, very much alive, and armed with Reid and Hotch's guns. She was a dangerous quarry. Dave assembled the teams in front of the diner and repeated the method of search.

'If you find her, don't approach her without back up.' he ended with. 'Remember that she is armed, and very dangerous.'

The teams split up and fanned out from the diner. They had a lot of ground to cover, and it was now mid afternoon. Dave had doubts that they would find her. She was good at covering her tracks, and if Reid hadn't escaped, they would not have found her lair. She had probably gone into hiding by now.

But they had to try.

With the road blocks that the police had set up, and the APB out on her, they would get her eventually. Dave just hoped it would be before she killed again. Because her time with Hotch and Reid had been interrupted, she could devolve into a spree.

He prayed that they would be in time to prevent that from happening.

-0-0-0-

It was touch and go in theatre. Hotch was damaged inside in several places, and although there were no arterial fractures, there was a clear danger that one could be missed. He probably couldn't take another stint in theatre.

His shoulder injury was serious. The orthopaedic surgeon thought it might require q joint replacement, but he pinned and plated it, hoping that would hold. His foot injury was mostly tissue damage, and it was stitched and bandaged.

The head injury and facial trauma was bad. His broken cheek was plated as was his fractured skull.

His eyes however did not respond to the light. The final beating to the face had smashed his nose and blinded him.

It was several hours later that they wheeled him out of theatre into recovery.

Hotch was floundering just beneath the surface of consciousness. He remembered that Dave had told him that Jacky was safe, and that gave him the courage to fight upwards towards wakefulness, but it was hard. His body still hurt and his head ached so that he couldn't think straight.

Someone was speaking to him. He struggled to listen.

'..... out of theatre now....... recovery......'

He turned his head, and his eyes fluttered open, but the hospital was in darkness.

He wanted to check with his hands that his eyes were actually open, but he was too weak. He turned his head towards the voice and tried to speak. The nurse put a wet sponge to his lips and he sucked on it gratefully. She only allowed him a little.

'Why can't I see?' he asked. His voice was rough and it hurt to talk. But he had to know.

'You suffered head trauma that had affected your ability to see. We are hoping it's temporary, Mr Hotchner, so don't be alarmed.'

'I'm blind?' He asked.

'It's fairly common after head trauma such as you have suffered. Nine times out of ten, it is temporary and only lasts two or three days. So don't worry.'

She looked into his dark eyes, devoid of expression, and she hoped sincerely that it was temporary.

-0-0-0-

They wheeled Hotch into the same room as Reid. They hoped that their proximity would speed up their recovery. Reid was propped up into a sitting position and his trachea tube had been removed. He was breathing fine on his own now. When Aaron was wheeled in the first thing Emily noticed was that he was bandaged across his eyes. His hands were heavily bandaged, as was his foot and right shoulder. His left arm was plastered, and his face was stitched.

'Oh god, Hotch....' she breathed when she saw him. His skin was white against the livid bruises and blood still on his face, and his mouth was swollen and cracked. She touched his arm.

'We're back together.' she said to him. 'Reid is here but he can't speak to you yet.'

Hotch moved his head towards her voice.

'Water..... please....' he croaked.

Emily took the sponge from his tray and held it to his lips. He sucked on it, and sank back onto his bed.

'Thank you.' he whispered. 'Reid?'

'He's right here.' Emily said. 'Shall I push the beds together?'

Hotch nodded. Emily kicked off the brake, and wheeled Hotch's bed so that it was next to Reid's. She took Reid's hand and put it on Hotch's arm. Hotch visibly relaxed at the touch. Reid smiled.

'Hey..... Aaron.' was all he managed to say. His throat was sore from the ventilator tube. But it was enough for Aaron. He smiled and turned towards him.

'Reid!' he said softly. It hurt like hell, but he wanted to speak to him. 'Thank you.'

-0-0-0-

Dave and Morgan joined them at the hospital that evening. They sat by the beds drinking coffee and talking about the case. Mae Claire had managed to escape, a search of the woods had revealed nothing. The CSU was processing the bunker where Hotch had been held, but they knew who the UnSub was, and had done for a while. What they wanted now was her whereabouts.

At just after eight o'clock, the doctor came in. He took the patients temperature and blood pressure, and then he told Hotch that he was going to unbandage his eyes. He cut through the bandage and pulled it back. Aaron's eyes were covered with gauze to keep them closed. Very carefully, he removed the gauze, and stepped back.

'Ok Mr Hotchner, you can open your eyes now.' he said.

Very slowly, Hotch forced his eyes open. He could not see anything.

'I'm still blind.' he said softly. The doctor shone his pen light into Hotch's eyes, but there was no reaction.

'Is it permanent?' he asked.

'In most cases, sight would have returned by now. We cannot be sure if it is permanent or not. It is a matter of waiting and seeing what happens.'

Hotch stared straight ahead, and tears collected in the corner of his dark eyes and ran down his face. If he was blinded, he was finished at the FBI. It was all over for him. He tried to rub at his eyes with his bandaged hands, but the doctor stopped him.

'It is by no means certain that you will not see again. We just have to wait.'

David followed the doctor out into the corridor.

'Is there anything we can do?' he asked.

'Just try to keep his spirits up. He's going to need his friends.'

-0-0-0-

"_**But the eyes are **__**blind**__**. One must look with the heart...**__**" – Antoine de Saint-Exupery**_


	12. In Hospital

**A/N slight fluff alert – PbTin, you might need your bucket!!**

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 12  
In Hospital

_**Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the **__**blind**__** can see**__**" – Mark Twain**_

A fortnight passed. The two men recovered slowly from their ordeal. Strauss had given the team leave unless something came up for them to work, and Reid and Hotch were blessed with constant visitors.

And they had a lot of time to talk too.

Hotch was still blind.

Some of the time Reid spent lying on his side watching Hotch sleep. He longed to see the life back in his eyes again. To Reid he looked like a frightened little boy, and he had slipped into a terrible depression.

'I'm finished at the BAU.' he had said. 'Finished with the FBI.'

'It might still come back!' Reid had countered. 'And even if it doesn't, you will be invaluable as an instructor.'

'My place is in the field with you. I won't survive without that.'

Reid hadn't said anymore. He knew Hotch was right.

He was asleep right now. He was sleeping too much, the doctor had said. When he was asleep he felt no pain, but the distress of the night mares still gripped him. Reid hadn't been out of bed alone yet. He made a decision. Since the nurses had separated their beds, Reid hadn't been able to touch him, and that human contact was what was going to save his sanity. He pushed back the covers on his bed, and carefully turned sideways on the bed. He slipped off the mattress and slowly took his weight on his feet. Pain shot through his body like an electric shock, and he gasped and gripped the bed. The beds were three feet apart; Reid looked at the space as if it were the Grand Canyon separating them.

Hotch was murmuring in his sleep, sounds that Reid recognised as a prelude to a night mare. He tentatively released his grip on the bed and reached out towards Hotch. With great deliberation, he took a step towards the other man.

Hotch was starting to cry out. Reid felt dizzy and shaky with nothing to cling onto. He took another step across the gap, and he was close enough now to touch Hotch's bed. He reached out for it, and missed.

On the way down he grabbed for anything he could, but he fell all the same, cracking his head on the bed frame, he was unconscious before he hit the floor.

-0-0-0-

'I'll call by and say good night before I go back to the hotel.' Garcia said. The others said they would wait in the restaurant, and Garcia went up the two floors to where her friends were. The first thing she saw was Reid's empty bed, then she saw him lying on the floor between the two beds. She ran to him and checked his pulse. He groaned when she touched him.

'What are you doing, Crazy Bunny?' she scolded as he woke up in her arms. 'Trying to kill yourself?'

'Aaron needs me, Garcia. Help me go to him.'

Garcia looked at her boss. He was sleeping but every now and again, a cry escaped his lips and his body twitched. He was in the depths of a night mare.

'Ok.' she said reluctantly. 'Lean on me and I will get you up onto his bed.'

Reid put an arm around Garcia's neck, and held on as she stood. It was only inches to go, and she turned him and he sat on the edge of Hotch's bed. That was when Garcia saw the bruise on Reid's forehead.

'Have you just done this?' she asked, touching it gently.

'I think I might have hit my head when I fell.' he said. 'I'm ok though.'

'Promise me you'll tell the nurse when she comes in.' Garcia said.

Reid promised. Garcia kissed him on the forehead and left.

Reid looked down at Aaron, and a surge of love for the man welled up from his heart. He had been prepared to die to make sure of his escape, and had lost his sight as a result. He felt a little sick from the head injury, and dizzy with effort. He lay down next to Aaron and gently put his arm around him without waking him. He could feel the rhythm of his chest rising and falling, and the soothing beat of his heart.

He had loved Aaron for a long time, but had never expressed his feelings. All the time Hotch was in love with Haley, it was not his place to usurp those feelings. But now, Hotch needed someone to love him and maybe one day, to love in return.

Reid kissed him softly on the neck, and Aaron stirred in his sleep. He was not gripped in a night mare now, his sleep was peaceful and healthy. Reid breathed in his scent and smiled as he fell asleep holding the man he loved in his arms.

-0-0-0-

_He could sense Aaron at the periphery of his vision, but as he turned to see him, the world turned with him, and he was still out of reach._

_He was wandering, eyes glazed and dark, unseeing, arms outstretched, walking towards danger._

_He called to him, tried to warn him, but still the world turned, Aaron didn't hear, and he turned his head towards Reid, and blinked his eyes, and stepped off into nothing._

_Reid lunged forwards to get to him, but he was gone now, there was nothing left...... _

-0-0-0-

Reid woke up with a jump. He was hanging onto Aaron. Aaron was awake, rigid with shock, eyes wide open.

'Aaron, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to waken you.' Reid said, loosening his tight hold. But instead of pulling away, Hotch moved closer, and rested his broken arm across Reid.

'Spencer?'

Reid touched Aaron's face.

'I'm here for you, Aaron. I always will be.'

Reid couldn't prevent tears of empathy from rolling down his face. He had no idea of the trauma Hotch had been through, nor indeed what he was going through now, but he was willing to give everything he had, including his life, to the man who was willing to die a horrible death for him.

Without getting beneath the cover, Reid curled his body around Aaron , and held him close. Aaron turned onto his side and hugged Reid's arms that were around him.

'Thank you.' he whispered hoarsely, Feeling that he was going to cry, he blinked away the tears, and held on tighter.

And that was how the nurse found them later on that night.

She didn't wake them, she simply raised the side of the bed at Reid's back so that he wouldn't fall, and left them to sleep.

They obviously needed each other. She made a mental note to push their beds back together in the morning.

-0-0-0-

That night David Rossi got a telephone call. There was a new case and the team was called back to Quantico. Their leave had ended, they needed to get back to work.

Dave woke Morgan, and called through to Emily and Garcia's room, to rouse them. The jet was going to pick them up in sixty minutes, and they had that long to get out onto the tarmac.

Dave showered and dressed, and while Morgan got ready, Dave ordered food for the four of them on the journey.

Then he put a call through to the hospital and left a message with the night staff to let Reid and Hotch know that they would not be visiting for a while.

Much as they all wanted to stay and be with Hotch and Reid, their work took precedent, and no one would understand that better than Hotch.

-0-0-0-

Aaron woke first the next morning. It took him a second or two to remember where he was, and what had happened the night before. When he remembered, his mouth flickered a tiny smile, and he released Reid's hands that he had been holding close with his forearms.

He tested his eyes as a matter of routine. There was no change, but he had got used to this happening, and as more days passed, he was expecting to see less and less. He had resigned himself to blindness, but there was the hope in the back of his mind that one day, his sight would return.

His work was his life. He had sacrificed his marriage to his work, and now Haley was dead because of it. He had lost much to stay loyal to his work, and now when he needed it, it had deserted him. He was on the scrap heap, but not before it had stripped him of everything else that could have given meaning to his miserable life.

Whatever happened now, he would be haunted by what had happened. He was useless to the FBI, and useless as a father to Jacky.

He hugged Reid harder. He was a life line.......

-0-0-0-

When Reid finally woke up, he was unsure if Hotch was still asleep.

'Aaron.' he whispered close to his ear. 'Are you awake?'

Hotch turned onto his back, still clinging onto Reid.

'Yes.' he answered, 'and thank you for being with me.'

'Always, Aaron.'

'Ok, Dr Reid, time for you to get back in your own bed.'

The nurse had been watching them through the window for a few minutes. But she thought it best that they were in their own beds when the doctor came.

'Your friends have had to go back to work.' she said, as she pushed the beds together. 'Now, Dr Reid, roll across into your bed. I will leave them together if I can.'

Reid did as she asked him, but he didn't let go of Hotch.

Hotch tried to sit up.

'I need to speak to Dave.' he said.

He could remember so clearly how quickly they had managed to work without Gideon. No one was indispensible. And Gideon was among the best. So how long would it be before he was not needed? Dave would be promoted to Unit Chief, and they would recruit at the bottom. There was no shortage of Agents longing for a chance to profile.

He gave a shuddering sigh, and realised that Dave would manage quite well without him.

Reid knew what he was thinking, and knowing that soon he would be back working at the BAU without Hotch, he understood how devastated Hotch must feel. He leaned over and gently took his bandaged hand.

'I won't go back without you.' he said. 'I will help you until you are ready to go back to work.'

'The team need you, Reid.' Hotch said, a little overwhelmed by what Reid was proposing – to give up his career to look after and rehabilitate a useless blind man.

'The team would do just as well with a computer as me.' Reid said depreciatively. 'You need me more.'

Hotch didn't know what to say. Words in situations like this he found difficult. He let Reid's words rest in the silence.

-0-0-0-

The doctor had said Reid could go home. And so could Hotch provided he had someone at home to care for him while he got used to his "new situation" as he called it.

'There is no one.' Hotch said, shocked at the meaning of his own words. There really was no one.

'There is a nice place, I have a brochure for it here, who would be willing to take you on a semi permanent basis.'

'I will take him home to my place.' Reid jumped in.

The doctor said that if Hotch was to go home, it should be his own home that he was used to so Reid asked Hotch if he could come and stay at his house for a while.

'I don't want to be alone.' Reid said. Hotch knew the real reason, and that Reid was sparing his feelings. It was a huge sacrifice from a man as private as Reid to make, and Hotch couldn't think of an alternative other than the offer of a place in an institution for the blind. He would die in there. He couldn't face it.

But at the sacrifice of Reid's career? he couldn't do it.

'I'll go to the institution.' he said.


	13. Home

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 13  
Home

"_**There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again." - Margaret Elizabeth Sangster**_

'Please, Aaron, let's at least try it.'

'I can't put that burden on you, Spencer.' he said. 'It wouldn't be fair.'

'Hotch it's not a burden, it's something I want to carry, if you'll just let me.' Reid said. 'How about we say just for a trial of say two months. Then decide.'

Hotch sighed. In his mind he had decided on the institution for the blind, but his heart said run with Spencer's idea.

'Ok.' he finally agreed. 'Two months, then no hard feelings either way at whatever we decide.'

Spencer beamed. He wanted to throw his arms around Hotch and kiss him. Instead he took his hand in his.

'I'll go to your place and get things ready for you, and then you can come home when you want to.'

So the decision was made. Hotch stayed in the hospital for two more days, and Reid went back and warmed the place up for him. It had been a while since the house was occupied, and Reid opened all the windows and aired the rooms ready for Hotch. He filled the fridge and freezer, and changed the bed linen.

And he advised Erin Strauss what he was doing and got indefinite leave.

This is what he wanted to do – take care of the man whom he loved.

When everything was ready, he headed back to the hospital.

-0-0-0-

Aaron was in a confused state of mind. He was aware of Reid's feelings for him, and sometimes he wanted to reciprocate. Now that Haley was gone, (he still forgot that sometimes).....

He did love Spencer. But not in the way that Spencer wanted. Aaron was concerned that this arrangement might give Spencer the wrong idea about his feelings.

It was only for two months though, and then he would go to the care home institution.

His life was over, and his blank eyes shed tears.

-0-0-0-

Spencer was excited. He longed to have Aaron home with him, and he almost skipped into the ward where Aaron was lying dressed and ready on his bed, eyes towards the ceiling.

Aaron's fingers were almost healed now; Reid took his hand gently, and Aaron sat up on the bed. He silently swung his legs over and stood shakily on the floor. He still walked with crutches; his foot was taking a long time to heal. He put on his shoes and Spencer led him out of the ward to the lift.

'It's not too late to change your mind, Reid.' Aaron said.

'I won't change my mind.' Reid answered. 'I want this.'

Aaron had practiced walking around the hospital floor where his ward was, but all the same he found this frightening, the route unfamiliar and noisy. He wanted to clasp his hands against his ears and curl up on the floor. Reid sensed that Aaron was nervous, and he stopped and put his arm around him.

'It's ok, Aaron. We are almost at the door. The car is just outside.'

It was with a great relief that Aaron sat in the car while Reid put his things in the boot. He was embarrassed at how he reacted, and determined in his mind to act like a Unit Chief, even though he wasn't one any more.

They were holding the post open for six months for him. Dave was Acting Chief, but he had made it clear he would rather be working under Hotch.

Six months.......

The door slammed and Reid started the car. Hotch sat quietly straining his eyes for just a little blur of light. Anything to indicate that this wasn't permanent.

There was nothing of course. The doctors had said that there was a blood clot in the vessel feeding his retinas, and that gradually, the nerves would die. Unless it was temporary. They couldn't tell him more than that.

_Please, let it be temporary....._

The once familiar streets were frightening now. Hotch gripped the sides of the seat, a sudden panic seemed to capture him and hold him rigid. He felt Reid's hand on his arm.

_There's no need to be scared. Spencer will always be there......_

'We're home!' Reid interrupted his reverie. Reid jumped out and went round to Hotch's side and opened the door for him.

'I can open the door!' Aaron snapped, and immediately regretted it. He sat with his head dropped forwards.

'I'm s-sorry, Aaron.' Reid stammered, and handed Hotch his crutches.

'I need to get inside.' he said, sudden panic of being outside and not being able to see. He took the crutches and with difficulty, made his way to the front door of his house. Reid stood back, unsure of what to do. He thought he had it all settled in his mind of how this was going to work, and suddenly he realised that it wasn't going to be easy. Aaron was in a deep depression, and Reid wasn't sure how he was going to handle it. He waited until Hotch reached the door. He watched as he ran his bandaged fingers over the door frame to find the spare key. He found it, and leaning on his crutches, tried to put the key in the door. He tried for a few seconds, and threw the key on the floor in frustration and anger.

Reid picked it up and opened the door. Aaron went inside and allowed Reid to lead him to the couch, where he sat and dropping the crutches to the floor, he put his hands to his face.

'I'm sorry I lost my temper out there, Spencer.'

Reid knelt down in front of him and took his hands.

'Aaron, it's ok. I can't pretend that I know what you are going through. But please, let me help you. Please don't shut me out.'

Hotch held tightly to Reid's hands. 'Don't let me get away with it. If I'm being an ass, just tell me.'

Reid just wanted to take him in his arms and hold him and never let go.

He looked into Hotch's eyes, and saw fear there. It was not something that he expected.

'I'll get your meds.' Reid said, and pulled his hands away.

Antidepressants, pain killers, and mood stabilisers. He looked at the little pile of pills in his hand. How long would this go on for? The antidepressants didn't seem to be working. Aaron was way down.

Only to be expected though. Reid felt a renewed determination to get through this with Hotch, even if it meant never going back to work at the Bureau.

He got water from the fridge and took the water and pills to Hotch. He took them in his hand and swallowed them all together.

'I'll get us some dinner.' Reid said. 'Is there anything you want?'

'You could put the TV on.' Hotch said.

'Ok.' Reid said, switching it on. 'It's re runs of Chicago Hope. Is that ok?' He passed Aaron the remote.

The pain killers had made Aaron Light headed. That always happened when he first took them. He was still in a lot of pain, and was on a high dose. He lay back on the couch and closed his eyes, and listened to the TV.

When Reid came back in with the dinner, Hotch was asleep on the couch. Reid took a quilt and wrapped it around him. He looked so peaceful lying there, Reid kissed him and switched off the TV. He left the remote by Aaron's hand and switching off the lights, went up to bed.

-0-0-0-

Aaron woke up a few hours later, and for a moment, he didn't know where he was. He blinked his eyes and rubbed at them – a ritual on waking – and decided to make some coffee.

He pushed back the quilt and with his arms out stretched, limped his way to the kitchen. He left his crutches by the couch.

He thought he remembered where everything was. He found the kettle, and filled it. Then he found the coffee.

He felt his way round, but was suddenly completely disoriented by the darkness. He felt anger build up in him again, and he fought to overcome it. The kettle boiled, and he held the mug and poured the water. It splashed out of the mug and scalded his hand. He dropped the kettle and everything fell apart.

It was a disaster. He couldn't do anything for himself. He slid down the wall and sat on the floor with his arms around his knees, head resting forwards, and cried.

He was still there in the morning when Reid came down stairs. Aaron's face was red and puffy with crying and his hand was blistered and sore. Reid knelt in front of him and took his hands.

'It's going to be ok, Aaron, I promise you.'

And Aaron reached for Spencer, and they clung to each other in the morning chill.

-0-0-0-

Spencer ran Aaron's scalded hand under the cold tap, and wrapped it in a dry bandage. The led him back into the sitting room, where Aaron laid down on the couch again. Reid brought him some food.

'This isn't going to work.' Hotch said. 'I will call the home today and book myself in.'

'Aaron, you haven't given it a chance. It will get better.'

Hotch gave a shuddering sigh, and put down his plate. 'I need a shower.'

'I'll go turn it on. Come up when you are ready.'

Spencer went upstairs and turned on the shower and got fresh towels and a dressing gown out for Hotch. He was determined to make this work. Hotch was depressed and short tempered, but that was temporary. Reid smiled as he put out shower gel and shampoo for Aaron. Then he heard him coming up the stairs.

'Thank you Spencer.' he said.

'I'll wait down stairs. Call if you need me.'

'I'll be fine.'

Hotch stripped off his clothes and left them in a pile on the floor, and stepped into the shower. The feel of the needles of water beating down on him helped wash away the bad mood he was in. He closed his eyes and pretended he could see, and he leaned on the cubicle wall and let the water beat down on his back.

His back was still scarred from the beating he took. In some ways he was glad he couldn't see the damage the woman had done to his body, but he could feel the scars as he soaped himself. His arm was out of plaster now, but it ached a lot. His hands still hurt, and his foot where he had been shot at point blank range. The doc had said he was lucky not to have lost it, and his arm too, but apart from his eyes, he had pulled through.

He poured shampoo into his hand and lathered his hair. It was getting long now, but there was no need to keep it short any more. He let the shower rinse the soap from his body and hair, and let it massage his shoulders. He needed to get control of his temper. Reid was doing his best, and Aaron needed to give him a chance.

He stepped out of the shower and rubbed himself dry. Reid had left a dressing gown out for him, and he wrapped himself up in it, and went out into the hall. He knew his bedroom was two doors along, and he felt his way along the corridor. He found his room and went in, dropping his dressing gown on the floor and getting into his bed. He was exhausted, and he fell asleep quickly.

The window was open, and his curtains blew in the breeze. Down in the overgrown garden, the early morning sun was evaporating the dew, and crouching low behind Haley's rockery, someone was watching Aaron's every move with a smile.

_Soon, Agent Aaron Hotchner..... soon!_


	14. Mae

**A/N A slightly shorter chapter this time. Thank you to all my reviewers. Reviews encourage me to carry on – thank you **

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 14  
Mae

_**An ancient proverb states, "Good men must die, but death can not kill their names."**_

Spencer looked out of the kitchen window into the garden. It was wild and overgrown – no one had tended it since Haley had left, but there were still flowers growing, and Spencer thought it would be nice for Aaron to be able to sit outside when the weather grew warmer.

He opened the kitchen door and wandered down the path between the flower beds and the lawn. The grass was up to his knees now, and he decided to get the strimmer out and cut it down.

He walked down towards the shed with a happy smile on his face. This was going to work out perfectly. The last thing he remembered afterwards was reaching up to the bolt that held the door closed. The bar came down on the back of his head with such ferocity that it broke the skin and cast blood across the door. Reid crumpled onto the floor, and he was dragged to the pond, where he was dropped face down in the water.

-0-0-0-

Aaron was sleeping. In his dreams he could see, but he wished he couldn't. He saw the woman who had done this too him, and he couldn't escape her. He felt anew the beatings and humiliation, and he moaned in his sleep as the pain got to be too much again.

Mae watched him for a while from the bedroom door. She put the bar on the bed next to him, and tied a slip knot in the rope that she had brought with her. Carefully so as not to wake the sleeping agent, she slipped the loop around Hotch's neck.

'Now your time has come. You won't survive this time. Your minder is drowning as I stand here.'

She pulled the rope tight and Aaron woke up. His hands went to his throat where the rope was digging into his flesh. One hand found the bar, and he swung it in an attempt to free himself. She yanked at the rope and he dropped the bar and pulled at the rope.

She stepped back into the hall, pulling Aaron with her as she went. He gagged and choked, and was pulled off the bed onto the floor.

He tried to call to Reid, but he couldn't form the words.

He clutched hold of the rope above his head, taking the weight of his body with his arms. Kicking out frantically, he managed to get his foot wedged around the leg of the bed. Savagely she kicked his leg and it came free.

Aaron turned onto his front and as she pulled him across the floor he tried to stand. He couldn't see his assailant, but he guessed who it was. Mae Claire – the woman who had failed to kill him before was here to make that right.

Aaron's hands slipped from the rope as she pulled it, and his arms flailed as he tried to feel for something to hold on to, to stop what ever she had planned. He tried to find the bar, but it was on the other side of the bed, way out of his reach.

His skin was burning off onto the carpet as she dragged him out of the bedroom into the hall. She wound the rope through the balustrade and pulled it until Hotch was lying with his head against the edge of the balcony. She stopped pulling and tied the free end around the post.

Still holding the rope tight, she waited while Aaron got his breath back. She wanted him to know who was doing this, and how she had fixed it so that he had killed Reid. She grinned as Aaron tried to loosen the rope, his unseeing eyes wide and dark.

'You know who I am, don't you.' She said. Hotch couldn't speak, he nodded. 'I have killed Reid in the garden, with the bar that has your finger prints all over it.'

Aaron shook his head. He said 'No!' but made no sound.

'And you, racked by remorse and depression, hung yourself.'

Again Aaron shook his head. No one would want to believe that he, a blind man could kill someone – kill Spencer – but the evidence spoke louder, and eventually it would be believed. He pulled at the rope again, and she yanked it tight, kicking him in the stomach to keep him still. He drew up his legs, protecting his nakedness from her. She kicked him from behind, and he arched his back, pain filled sounds coming from his throat.

'Stand up!' she roared, loosening the rope so that he could. She pushed her fingers into his long hair and pulled him up. Then with her fists together, she punched him in the front of his neck and he toppled sideways over the rail and into nothingness.

As he fell he reached out for the balustrade, and managed to cling hold of it with both hands. She smiled in surprise, and sat down next to him as he hung by his arms.

'Very clever.' she said. 'A blind and useless man, doesn't want to die after all.

She took a packet of cigarette out of her pocket and lit one. She touched the glowing tip on his arm. He squirmed, his throat making a distressed sound.

'Self harm is common among people like yourself.' she said, burning him again. His arm came away from its grip momentarily, but he got hold of it again. He tried to swing his legs up, but he was out of condition, and couldn't do it. He pulled himself up so that his forearms were through the posts, and he gripped tighter. Mae didn't seem to mind. She put her hand through the bar and pulled his hair. He opened his mouth in a gasp, and she forced the cigarette into his mouth. He twisted his head, but she had what she wanted – his DNA on the filter. She burned him again, but this time he didn't flinch.

_Spencer.... where are you..... I can't believe she has killed you and this is because of me...... Spencer, be alright! Please, don't be dead!...._

-0-0-0-

The sudden cold water of the pond woke Reid up, and he dragged himself out of the water, and rolled onto his back on the paving in the bright morning sun. He wasn't sure what had happened, but he knew he needed to check on Aaron – some deep seated instinct – call it love if you want, but whatever it was, it made Reid try to stand. He got onto his knees, and was overcome with dizziness, and he passed out on the ground.

-0-0-0-

'So why are you so keen to hang on to your miserable life?' Mae asked. Hotch began to try to speak when she pulled the rope and choked him again. 'You are a useless piece of garbage, no good to anyone or anything, and now you want to live? How sad, when you have no chance.'

She was a strong woman, but even so, it took all of her strength to pull Aaron's arms away from the posts he was holding onto. With the help of the glowing end of her cigarette, she managed to pull his arms back and he slid down so that he was holding on with his fingers.

'See you in Hell, Agent Aaron Hotchner.' she said, and kicked his newly healed fingers. He clutched at the rope as he fell, his life depending on the strength of his hands on the rope above his head. Slowly the life was being choked out of him as his hands weakened and the rope slipped through them.

Mae went and got the bar and placed it next to the place where Aaron was hanging. She left the cigarette on the floor, and went down to the kitchen. She looked back at her handiwork. Hotch was swinging on the end of the rope, still gripping the rope above his head, taking the weight of his body. She thought he looked sad and pathetic – a murder suicide. She sighed and turned away, walking through the kitchen to the back door.

-0-0-0-

Hotch was frantic. He tried to swing his legs up onto the outside edge of the balcony, but he wasn't strong enough. He had no idea how far he had fallen, whether he could reach the balcony with his hands, but he dare not let go of the rope to find out. He made small cries as the rope burned his palms, and he gripped tighter.

And Reid? Had she really killed him? What would be her reason for lying? She had set it up as a murder suicide, and that is what the CSIs would conclude.

He was becoming exhausted, and his fingers were hurting. There was no one to help him, eventually his arms would give out.

He let go with one hand and reached out to where he thought the balcony was. His fingertips brushed against it as the other hand gave way and the rope tightened around his neck. He felt the rope burn into his skin and he fainted.

-0-0-0-

Reid opened his eyes. The sun was shining down on him and for a second he wondered why he was lying out here on the paving. He had an awful headache, and he reached up and touched the back of his head, and it was sticky with blood.

Had someone hit him?

Aaron!

He went to get up, when he saw Mae coming out of the kitchen door into the garden.

_Oh god! Mae! What had she done to Aaron?_

He had no gun or weapon – nothing to take her out. But he had his strength. He stood up. He felt sick from the head injury, but he had to take this woman out, and quickly. She had killed nine people, and tried to kill him and Hotch.

He ran to the kitchen door, and she ran after him, shrieking like a banshee. She got hold of him in a rugby tackle, and Reid kicked out at her.

She was surprisingly strong, and she hung onto his leg. Reid kicked her again, in the face, and her grip loosened. Reid twisted onto his back and pulled her up by the hair and punched her in the jaw. She fell back, stunned. Reid raced through the kitchen in time to see Aaron's final effort to stay alive, and his fingers missed the balcony. He stopped struggling, and hung motionless, his blind eyes wide and dead.


	15. The Hanging

**Cast Off  
**Chapter 15  
The Hanging

_**He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe**_

For a second Reid just stared at Hotch as he stopped moving and hung silently over the balcony. His skin was pale in the morning light, his dark hair in terrible contast to the ashen skin, and he swung slightly as he died.

_Oh my good god! Aaron!_

Reid forced himself into movement, and ran up the stairs. He leaned over the balcony, but he couldn't reach Aaron. He reached through the bars, but he was still too far away. He ran back down and dragged a chair over to him, and stood on it. He could just reach him now, around his waist and he lifted him to get the weight off his neck, terrified of what damage he was doing to Aaron in the process. He stood on his toes and slipped the rope off over his head revealing a wicked purple ring around his throat. The sudden weight almost unbalanced him as he caught Aaron before he could fall to the ground.

Hotch wasn't moving. Reid laid him down on the floor, where he lay still and white. Reid checked Aaron's bruised neck for a pulse. There was none, nor was he breathing.

Reid knew the chances of being able to revive him was slim, but he started chest compressions anyway.

_Come on, Aaron, wake up, I need you! Don't die!_

Reid breathed into Hotch's lungs, and compressed his chest. He felt a rib break under his hands.

Between compressions, he pulled out his phone and dialled 911, switching it to speaker.

He shouted the address to the phone while he continued to work on Aaron. He knew that there was very little hope, but until the paramedics told him not to, he was going to fight for this man's life.

He breathed into his lungs again.

'Breathe Aaron! Damn it!' he yelled, the fear evident in his shaking voice.

There was a bruise starting on Aaron's chest where ribs were broken, but Reid didn't stop. He checked for a pulse again.

Negative.

_Oh god.... Please, Aaron! Don't die!_

He continued fighting. He knew he was crying because his vision was blurred. His head still hurt where he had been hit, but this was taking over every fibre of his body, and the pain had faded to nothing.

He checked again for a pulse, and this time,to his shocked delight, he felt one.

Aaron's heart was beating!

He breathed into his lungs once more, and Hotch took a deep shuddering breath on his own. Tears of relief and exhaustion fell from his eyes onto Aaron's face.

He left him and ran to the couch and fetched a throw which he wrapped around Aaron's cold body, and he knelt back on his heels, holding his hands and talking to him.

Aaron was breathing on his own, but he was still unconscious. Reid was afraid that there was a possibility that he would not awaken, after the trauma he had been through.

'It's safe to wake up now, Aaron.' Reid said to him. 'She can't hurt you now.' he lifted his head onto his lap and held him close to his chest, and brushed the long hair from his face. 'Please wake up!' He kissed the livid line around Aaron's neck.

He thought of the murder suicide plan that Mae Claire had set up, and was horrified to think of how close she had been to carrying it out. He would have been found beaten and drowned in the garden, Aaron hanging from the balcony. He sighed and held him tighter. Mae was unconscious in the garden, at least he hoped she was. Really he ought to go down stairs and check, but he refused to leave Aaron alone in case he woke up and didn't know where he was. He would be in a lot of pain after being hung, and he had broken ribs now. And he was blind.

In the distance he could hear the sirens of the police and ambulance.

-0-0-0-

'He has to wake up!' Emily cried when Reid told her.

'It is possible that he will wake up, but it could be in the next second, or it could be years, or never.' Reid said, fighting back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him again. 'He is responding to stimuli, but the doctors can't get him out of the coma he's in. We need to stimulate him as much as possible by reading to him, talking to him. When we're not with him, I will leave music playing for him. I am not giving up on him.'

'None of us are, Spencer.' Dave said. 'We will take turns to sit with him for as long as it takes for him to wake up. He is close to the FBI head quarters. Unless we are called away on a case, some one will be able to stay with him twenty four seven.'

Reid rubbed at his eyes. 'I can't believe I let her get to him. This is my fault. If he dies........'

'It's not your fault, Kid.' Morgan said.

'She won't touch him again though.' Emily said. 'She's in custody now, and she will go on trial for the murder of nine people, and the attempted murder of two FBI Agents. She won't be seeing daylight for a long time now.'

Reid was shattered. He rested his head on Aaron's bed and closed his eyes.

'You go home.' he said. 'I'll spend the night here.'

'I'll come in the morning with a book to read to him.' Emily said.

When they had gone, Reid kicked off his shoes and lay on the bed next to Aaron. He rested his head on Hotch's shoulder, and fell asleep on him.

-0-0-0-

Spencer didn't sleep peacefully that night. With Aaron in his arms, he dreamed of losing him, his body slipping from his grip and being dragged away from him. In a whirl of space, he clung onto Hotch and held his body tight to his chest, refusing to let go, until finally he was dragged from him, Reid woke with a cry, his fingers digging into Hotch's chest, cutting tiny crescents in his skin.

There was no reaction from Hotch. He lay as still and pale as ever.

Emily arrived at seven with some food for Spencer, and coffee.

'I'm going to read this to him.' she said, showing Reid the book she had brought with her. While Reid and Emily waited, the nurse came in and moved Hotch, and put cream on the backs of his legs and shoulder blades. Seeing him like that made Emily cry and she and Reid clung together, drawing strength from each other.

When the nurse had gone, Reid sat and drank the coffee and Emily started the book.

-0-0-0-

Hotch could hear the words, and recognised it at once, but however hard he tried he couldn't come up to meet them. He wasn't sure that he wanted to, and his heart told him that to wake up, he had to want it.

Wake up to what? A life of darkness, being led around by others, locked away from society in an institution, useless to everyone. He thought of his little boy, and never being able to watch him grow. Tears for his child collected in the corners of his eyes, and ran down his face into his hair. He felt someone...... Emily?...... touch his face and take the tears away.

-0-0-0-

Reid! He's crying! Oh god, he's crying!'

Reid put down his coffee and stood beside her. If he was crying, he had to be aware of something, there had to be some kind of thought processes..........

Emily ran to the door, and called the nurse.

Reid sat on the bed and spoke softly to Hotch.

'Aaron, whatever is hurting you isn't real. Your friends are here. Wake up, Aaron. Come back to us.' Reid took his hands. 'Tell me that you are aware of us, squeeze my hand.'

-0-0-0-

Aaron tried. He concentrated on Reid's voice, and tried so hard. He was sure that his fingers trembled. He could feel Reid's hand. ..

Very slowly, with all his concentration, he moved his fingers.

He felt arms around him, happy sounds of laughter........

-0-0-0-

Reid hugged Aaron, laughing and crying at the same time. Aaron was waking up.

He slowly and deliberately, with the emphatic movements like an intoxicated man trying to walk, he raised his hands to his eyes and pulled off the strips of tape holding them shut. Very slowly he blinked his dark eyes.

Reid! Emily!

Aaron could see. He wanted to tell them but his throat felt as if it was on fire and he couldn't speak.

Suddenly a light shone in his eyes.

'There is a reaction to the light.' The doctor said. 'It is possible that the shock of the hanging dissipated the blood clots. He might be able to see again.

Emily called Rossi on her cell – no one had the heart to tell her not to use it.

'He's waking up, Rossi! Hotch is waking up!'

'We're on our way, Emily.' Dave said.

-0-0-0-

'Spencer, I can see you!' Aaron said, his voice harsh and brittle.

He blinked again as if to make sure, he rubbed at his eyes, terrified that this was a dream, and he would wake up blind again.

'Oh god, Aaron. i can't believe it!' Reid almost danced around the bed. Emily had a huge smile on her face, overjoyed to see her boss not just alive, but well!

-0-0-0-

The doctors advised Hotchner not to speak unless he had to, because his larynx was badly bruised, and would recover more quickly if he didn't attempt to use it. But he had to. A week later saw him readying himself for going home, and maybe in a short while, back to work.

'I'll need my office back.' he smiled at Rossi, who grinned back.

'It's always been yours.' Dave replied

**END**

A/N This is a short chapter. Now Aaron can see again, his recovery will be fairly quick. My next story will be a sequel.

Thank you to my reviewers. I LOVE YOU ALL!


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